SUHSD Board Meeting June 4, 2025

001Three of us. Well, three of us back to back. Yeah, I have to write your I didn't know. I'm here. Good evening and welcome to this clo um meeting of the governing board of Sequoia Union High School District. First on the agenda is 2 point or two item number two which is close session. There are any public comment on close session agenda items only. There are none in person. Are there any online? There are no comments. Okay. So, the board will recess to close session. Great. Good evening and welcome to this Wednesday, June 4th meeting of the governing board of the Sequoia Union High School District. Um, my name is Sauti. I'm the president of the board. We'll start with item number three, which is our reconvene to public session. Just to go over some

002general protocol for this meeting, um members of the who wish to remotely provide comment during the meeting can use the raise hand feature during agenda items. Speakers must raise their hand during agenda item 8.1, the public comment portion of the meeting, in order to comment on topics that are not included in the approved agenda. To speak about an item on the agenda in person, please fill out a speaker card, indicate the agenda item, and hand the card to Laura at the dis. When the requested agenda item comes before the board, the speaker will be called forward. Um, with this, we'll move on to item number four, which is the roll call. Trusty Cruz here. Trusty Thompson here. Trusty Gen here. Vice President Coup here. President Nory here. Corm is present. Okay. Now move on to

003item number five, approval of the agenda. Okay. I do have a change to the agenda. I'd like to that on action item 17.1 will also serve as a public hearing before the vote on the resolution. Okay, sounds good. Any other changes to the agenda? If not, could I get a motion to approve the agenda? Motion to approve agenda with changed dialogue. All in favor? I I Okay, motion passes unanimously. Um, next is report out of close session. There is nothing to report out of close session today. And finally, item number seven, special recognitions. So, I'll turn it over to Superintendent Leech. Thank you. So, tonight we are excited to recognize There's a lot of blue in this room. I'm wearing I'm wearing blue, too. I just noticed that. Sorry. just noticed that uh tonight recognized

004the car school's competitive speech and debate team. Cannot wait. A new club this year that was developed out of the ninth grade enrichment monies that the board approved. Thank you trustees. Um to share more about the team's accomplishments, I would like to welcome Carlott High School principal Gay Buckland Murray to the podium. Uh, good evening, President Nori, to members of the board, Superintendent Leech, cabinet, teachers, staff, students, and community members. It is my great pleasure to be here tonight to introduce you to some Carlmont students and to talk about our competitive speech and debate group. I know the board has been interested in the nth grade experience. sites were provided with some additional funding to help develop some different opportunities for our freshmen. The group I'm presenting tonight is a product of that initiative. And

005by initiative, I should highlight the initiative this group has taken to form. They began contacting me as eighth graders when they were at TL. They had a vision for this group even a year ago at this time. I want to recognize and commend them for their persistence and their drive to get competitive speech and debate off the ground. Thank you. This group participated in over 15 tournaments. They had two finalists at the National Parliamentary Debate Invitational. They took first place at a National Speech and Debate Association springboard scrimmage. And two of this group will be participating in the national tournament this summer. But most importantly, this group has created a tremendous bond and has generated clear team spirit. Again, they meet a lot and even on Fridays after school and for those meetings, there's pizza

006that helps keep the spirits up and the attendance robust. They have done studentr run events at Carlmont High School like lectures, debate games, and practice rounds for tournaments. To get ready for the next crop of ninth graders, they are running a summer camp. And already they have about 30 students registered to participate in that. So tonight, and maybe can I ask them all to come up? I would like to introduce you to Sukina Ohashi. She's one of our captains. Oh, excuse me. They're one of our captains. Tia Simon, captain. Alina Robinson, captain. Mia Gosh, captain. Nielsen Chen, captain, and then the fearless team members, Elena Winersonen, Asar Mestri, Zayn Rezac, Evan Wigel, and Timothy Chu. I would also like to introduce staff advisor, Maria Robinson, and I really want to thank everybody for being here

007tonight. So, can you guys all come up, please? Okay. We're gonna take a picture right up here. Okay. Follow Trusty Nory. Go stand around here. Okay. I also want to mention before we take the photo um the the the entire team I should mention as well because several students couldn't come tonight because they're at home at Crommont studying for our sixth period final tomorrow. Uh also is Bowen Yan. I'd like to recognize Bowen. Uh, also Adit Das and uh, Meika Gosh, and sorry about this, Kellen Kato, Lucas Masnik, Calvin Massie, and last but not least, Isaac Clark, and I will be getting them all of their certificates in the coming days. So, thanks everybody. You guys showing your certificates real proud? Anybody question? Thank you to the board. Okay. Um item number now we're on

008item number eight which is public comment. Um the board does not act upon any matter that has not been agendaized except under limited circumstances as permitted by law. It is a policy of the board to refer matters raised in this forum to staff for investigation and or action where appropriate. Board policy autom or ordinarily limits the time to be devoted to any single agenda topic to 10 minutes and the individual speakers are ordinarily limited to three minutes. The board decides to expand the amount of time to be allocated to a particular agenda item because many speakers wish to address the item. The board may reduce the amount of time allocated to a particular speaker to 2 minutes or 1 minute as appropriate in order to permit more speakers to comment. The board will announce the

009amount of time to be allocated to each speaker before the public comment on each particular agenda item. We ask that all speakers keep within the time limit. So are there any public comment? Yes. So I have four in person and one hand raised online. Okay, we can start with the online one and then do the in person. Okay, first up is iPhone 518. Hi. Are you there? Okay. Um, let's just do the in person ones then. Okay. In person. First up is Ashley Gray. Good evening, Superintendent Leech, members of the board. Uh my name is Ashley Gray. I teach at Sequoia High School. I'm the director of the Health Careers Academy. Uh it's been a couple of years, so I don't It's nice to meet all of you for the first time. Uh I'm here.

010We have uh well the health careers academy is one of our CTE programs uh 10th through 12th grade with a focus on health careers. We have about 140 students. Uh several years ago we were honored by the state as one of our distinguishedmies. Uh I'm here this evening to um congratulate all of us on the end of the year and to thank you for your continued support for the CTE programs. And additionally, we have a couple of students who are going to be speaking following me, um, who are going to be rising seniors and are going to be leaders of our leadership group in the academy called HOSA. Uh, they're going to be showing some gratitude for the continued support. Thank you, Superintendent Leech, for your continued support for our program. Um, and also just

011to kind of raise awareness for our program. So, again, thank you for supporting our CTE programs. uh they are very effective and we have a lot of our uh students alumni continuing to come back and um demonstrate how they are using what they learned in our program in their career and to help our community in the health field. Thank you very much. Thank you. Next we have Greg Schmidt. when you are okay. Uh, good evening, uh, Superintendent Leech, members of the board, cabinet, and guests. My name is Greg Schmid. I'm the adviser of the HOSA club at Sequoia High School. Uh, I'm here today to read a statement from one of our young leaders, underclass president, Irene Garcia Lopez, who's unable to be here tonight. uh she was unable to move a job interview that

012she was having um and she asked me to read her thoughts. So these are from her. Good evening, Superintendent Leech and members of the board. Thank you for the opportunity to share my thoughts about the HCA and HOSA with you. I am sad I am unable to be here tonight, but I had another obligation I could not miss. When I first joined HOSA as a sophomore, I felt nervous. Even though I was just a sophomore with barely any knowledge of HOSA, I felt comfortable contributing my ideas without having feelings of discouragement or discomfort. The HOSA students welcomed us sophomores with o open arms. Not only did they actively listen and engage with our ideas, but they also helped us to put those ideas into practice. With support and dedication from our club, we were able

013to bring our ideas to life in a way that could benefit our community. We were able to volunteer on numerous occasions such as visiting Hopkins Manor which really made a difference putting smiles on the faces of residents during the holiday season. My favorite memory from HOSA this year would be doing the Narcan project. I was the co-lead on this project along with our senior president Ashley Zuniga. She gracefully took me under her wing and built my confidence in the leadership role. We worked on this project together along with many other members of HOSA and it became a huge success. As members of HOSA, we learned life-saving skills. We were able to educate then our community on how to recognize an opioid overdose and how to use Narcan to reverse the effects and save lives. I

014appreciate the time and support needed to make these activities possible and I look forward to being part of HOSA next year. Um, I hope to see one of you or all of you at one of our events. Thank you for your time. I appreciate it. Thank Thank you. Next, we have McKenzie S. Good evening, Superintendent Leech and members of the school board. My name is Mackenzie Smiley and I'm a rising senior at Sequoia High School. I'm a proud member of the Health Careers Academy known as the HCA and within that the student leadership academy HOSA which stands for Health Occupation Students of America. HOSA has given me and many of my fellow students countless extracurricular opportunities both inside and outside of the classroom that many other students even at Sequoia just don't get or even

015know about. OSA recognizes and actually understands that many of the students within the program itself are interested in working into like the medical field and as a future career opportunity. And they actually take that and give us incredible opportunities that help us kind of narrow down what we might want is a future career opportunity, helping us decide what we want to focus on for not only our education, but where we want to look for future schools or jobs or things like that. Some things they do to help this is actually with the support that host has gotten over the years. We've been lucky enough to have Kaiser Permanente send in physicians and they work with us hands-on on a lot of really interesting things that just many students don't get the opportunity to do, let

016alone in high school. Like these are really neat opportunities. One example of this is when Kaiser actually sent in uh Kaiser sent people in who helped us with learning how to stitch. They actually brought pigkin along with the supplies needed for suturing. And not only did they walk around and give us one-on-one corrections, but they fully taught us how to suture. Going into it, I had no idea. I thought that when you stitch something up, you literally just brought strength through it. And this really opened my eyes to if I want to get a job in the health field, this is what I will be doing on a daily basis. This is what I'm signing up for and this is what I need to want to do. On top of that, they've brought in other

017professionals who work with ultrasounds. And not only did did they do an ultrasound, they actually took a student volunteer during our class and put her on a table and did a live ultrasound right in front of us. While they did this, they were actually explaining how everything worked. And this was really interesting because we were able to see, okay, if I'm going to work with ultrasounds, this is what I'm going to be doing. These were both experiences that going into high school I never thought I would be able to do in high school. I thought that you had to wait until you were like a doctor to be able to stitch something up. So this not only opened my eyes to what I want to do in the future, it helped me know, okay, this

018is what I want to study. This is what I want to aim to do because I really enjoyed stitching and I didn't enjoy this and things like that. It's helped so many students with that. So I ask that if you do support HOSA personally, thank you so much. It's helped me in so many ways along with my classmates. And if not, please consider supporting because it truly opens up many doors and windows that wouldn't have been opened if it weren't for HOSA. Thank you. Thank you. Our last speaker is Alli R. Okay. Um, good evening Superintendent Leech and the members of the school board. My name is Ali Reyes. I'm a rising senior at Sequoia High School and uh I am a part of the health careers academy, the HCA and I am also a

019member of the leadership club HOSA. Okay. Today I'm here to talk about the opportunities the academy has been given me and my fellow classmates to help our art community. One opportunity is the blood drive which is an event hosted by uh HCA teachers and students where we sign up fellow classmates and teachers and we are in partnership with the Stanford blood drive. Uh during recent our spring blood drive we were able to save up to 81 people in need of blood transfusions. Uh throughout our junior year, we're also able to be prepared and learn how to become active CERT emergency response team. Uh we are trained during our senior year to be able to help and be leaders during evacuation drills and just in case in any um real life scenario. Uh being in HOSA,

020I've been able to get opportunities to attend the San Monteo County Office of Education Career Technical Advisory Committee meeting. We were able to network and educate and with employers and local businesses and colleges and present our work to the community partners. I was really proud to be able to share what I have done and projects with HOSA and like to make our community safer. Uh I am very grateful for the support of the HCA and HOSA has given us to become active members in supporting our community. So yeah, I hope one day you guys can come see what we do and great. Thank you. That concludes public comment. Thanks. Okay. Um, next we have item number 10 or item number nine, board of trustees correspondence. So, I have one correspondence to share. Um, we received

021um a letter from the Sanonteo County Office of Education about our 2024-25 second interim report. And um I I will read a portion out to the board. Um, the Sanonteo County Office of Education has completed its review of the Sequoia Union High School District second interim report for the 2024-25 fiscal year pursuant to education code 42130. On the basis of our review and analysis, the second interim financial report approved by the board on March 19th, 2025 appears to reflect adequately the financial and budgetary status of the district and is consistent with the state criteria and standard. The information assumptions incorporated in the budget appear reasonable. Um the district has submitted a positive certification which means the district has certified it will meet its fiscal obl or financial obligations for the current and two subsequent financial

022years. Um that concludes our board of trustees correspondents. Um next is item number 10 which is board of trustees superintendent comments and committee reports. Turn it over to my fellow board members. Hello. Good afternoon everybody. Um last week I went to EPA Academy and I got to witness um many of the students who are going on to um college. So it was a beautiful day to uh witness their I guess called the college sign up day. So, it was really nice to meet the parents and a lot of the students that are going on to various um universities for their four-year college and also two-year college experience. Um it was really beautiful and I it was really nice to also meet future students that will be at my institution. So, that was really special. Took

023a picture with them uh and uh told them to come find me when they come to San Jose State. So, it was a beautiful um experience and hope to continue to keep doing that. Thank you. I just wanted to uh do another thank uh just thankfulness show gratitude mayhem man it's over um I want to show gratitude for uh our sites that hosted us part uh MA and Woodside I just was blown away by the incredible work um and talking to the students and talking to the faculty uh those those two meetings were really incredible And so I I really just wanted to take another opportunity to express gratitude for that. Um as well as for our special board meeting um where we got to talk to all the principles and all the incredibly hard

024work that is happening to make sure that we are good to go for next year. It's hard to think about that right now. Um but yeah, and then I got to go um with trust um also got to go to Redwood and meet the chickens finally. So I was excited about that. Um so extend gratitude for that invitation as well. Um and then my last comment is you know as trustees we're we're first and foremost here for the students but we recognize that there is such a team that get that goes into making sure that these students are ready to go. Um I happen to live next to two graduating seniors from Sequoia. Um one is their first child going off to college and one is their last child going off to college. And so

025I want to take this opportunity to shout out all of those senior parent and caregivers because we're as teachers we're ready to be done with it but they're starting a whole new journey right now. Um and I want to rec take that time to recognize them and thank them as well. Yeah. I just uh I wanted to express my gratitude to all the volunteers and staff that made AP exams and IB exams a success and we were touring schools while all that was happening. So I'm sure we added to the stress levels. Um I did have a chance to volunteer at one IB exam at Sequoia. So that was very interesting experience. I mean the logistics were flawless. I mean you had to go perfectly alphabetical order out the door in a FedEx truck. It's

026like, holy smokes. But the focus of the volunteer proctors was really to help students be at ease and less anxious. Um, I mean, there there was a lot of nerves. Uh, and some students even needed I I need um uh kind of like a an an ear earbuds, right, to to block out all the noise. And then someone started talking really loud right outside the exam room. So, someone had to go out there. a people are taking exams. So, um I know that's how it feels right now during finals as well. A lot of nerves. Um and hope uh I really appreciate all the staff as well as fellow students who are doing different things at school sites to help calm people down. Um I also had a chance to go to the MA PTA

027appreciation lunch. Um I sat a table by myself and then finally someone sat next to me. I don't bite, but I don't know. I had front row center seats. Um, but I was actually glad to talk to a parent who sat next to me and it it turned out that she's the one who does the translation for their school newsletter. Um, but she's graduating from MA this year. I was like, "Oh no, who's going to do that next?" So, we'll we'll find out. Um and then after the um special meeting with all the principles where we were looking at the SIPA um reports, I stopped by the Sequoia lawn in front of the Carrington Hall to listen to the pops music concert which was a lot of fun. Um it's it's the coral group, the

028ac capella group, as well as their orchestra and band. Uh I somehow missed the memo to bring lawn chairs or picnic blankets. So, uh, fortunately the grass was mostly dry. Uh, but it's a great it was a great job. And I did want to highlight that in the consent agenda item 13:15. Um, it follows up on that pops music concert because I want to applaud the efforts of the Sequoia Performing Arts faculty to create beginning band and orchestra courses that are open to all grades. Um, and it really will allow any student to try an instrument for the first time. Um, and for myself, I I would I learned clarinet in beginning band as a junior in high school. Um, and so offering beginning band and orchestra really aligns to our promise that all SUHSD

029students belong, expand their worldview, and graduate ready to pursue their dreams. Um because now all students regardless of their background have an opportunity to learn a musical instrument which helps to reduce stress, right? It's fun to learn something new and it's a break from all the academic pressures. Um it will help to build relationships across different grade levels. So not just building relationships from from your peers but different grade levels as well as uh produce different genres of music as a group. and that helps expose students to different world cultures. Um, for me, I had always loved the sound of the clarinet, but hadn't had the opportunity to learn how to play. And by going for it my junior year with a loner clarinet provided by my school, I realized it was never too late

030to pursue a dream. And so, yeah, I sounded terrible squeaking on a mouthpiece in the beginning. Uh, but the progress I made over the course of the year gave me the confidence to always go after my dreams no matter what challenges were in my way. And I hope that more classes like beginning band and orchestra will be offered at all of our high schools so that students have an entry point to explore the arts, sports, academic and career interests, to gain experience in things that they will enjoy for the rest of their lives and also be ready to pursue their dreams. So, thank you again to the VPA staff at Sequoia for putting these courses course proposals together and please invite us to the first beginning band and orchestra concerts. Thank you. Thank you. Um,

031just briefly, I wanted to add on on all my board of trustees colleagues and thank our entire school staff and teachers for, you know, working so hard this entire year, especially those who we came and visited. It was um really interesting and fun to visit school sites and see where you know all our discussion ends up actually affecting children in the classroom and at schools. So thank you to everyone who made that possible and thank you for working so hard this year. Um with that I know Superintendent Leech has something to say just quick um first happy birthday Amy board meeting. We'll see who that happens with next year. Um, also as you can kind of note over there behind cabinet, we have a giant like poster that says happy retirement. And so before that's

032not for you, Todd. Um, before we uh stop, we were able to celebrate um our retirees and it's just okay trying not to cry. It's so amazing to hear the stories and how um you know how long um our employees have been here and what they've seen and how they have seen public education evolve over time and how they have stuck with it and and just like grow and the lasting impact. And you could definitely feel the energy in the room that with staff that was here like our student colleagues like we will remember them for a variety of reasons good, bad and upside down but like we will remember them and it was so just so refreshing to be able to celebrate them. Uh thank you to the principles who showed up. I know

033that many of you have awards uh meetings tonight and and it's still a very packed week, but we were able to stop and pause for a minute to really celebrate um staff that that will be retiring. So, thank you. Thank you. Um with that, we'll move on to item number 11, which is student trustee comments. Hello. Hello. Hi. um from Carmont High School. My name is Ryan Kung, current junior. Um is it a little closer? Is it all right? Hello everyone. With the class of 2025 graduating and finals wrapping up, Carmon is headed towards a busy summer with many new and continued summer camps. Camp's Genesis, which is STEM related initiatives and environmental acknowledgement. Camp Spark, business and marketing to raise money for DECA. BIS and tech also raises money for DECA and a speech

034and debate camp to teach young people oral proficiency. Intro to business students partnered with the IRS VA program to file 74 tax returns for lowincome families at the local Belmont library. And in academic competitions, Carmont ranked in top five nationally and number one in California for gold level national Spanish exam scores. And a four student team won the Sanonteo County History Competition. Furthermore, this past month, Carm continues to shine both in and outside of the classroom with teachers Miss Redmond and Miss Calvin's classes tackling challenges in debate. um going from discussions with the death penalty to marijuana legalization, demonstrating strong argumentative skills. Some new clubs that have been started at Carmont are recently started an organization called FBLA, which is better known as the Future Business Leaders of America, has been stated at Carmont and

035leading students to learn about entrepreneurship and business skills throughout workshops, networking, and competitive events. Having an FBA at co at at school simulates some of the real world experiences and teamworks which translates into stronger performances and confidence in business competitions. A brief statement from Karmat's FBA club. Two mice once fell in a bucket of cream. That was it. We don't want members for FBA. We want competitors. People who are hungry for the win. With strong work ethic, FBA can teach students how to be that second mouse. Furthermore, Carmmont students in the Christian and actions club at Carmmont start a discussion on helping Belmont coordination with campaigns to teach younger students how to be more careful on crossing roads in busy school mornings. Carmmont students in the Christian and Actions Club continue to help with these

036campaigns and helping create posters and flyers to further support the community. These efforts um in creating posters have also um partnered with local crossing guards and organization with morning reminder announcements. And then today, Carmont campaigns to raise $140,000 before June 30th to secure funds for um to guarantee 21 more course selections, supporting the counseling team, and expanding mental wellness services and maintaining college and career preparation programs. The statement. Thank you. Um my name is May. I'm a rising junior at Carmont High School. And building on to what Miss Buckland Murray mentioned about the speech and debate team earlier, Carmon and other schools in the Sequoia Union High School District had not have not only demonstrated oral proficiency, but also written mastery. Carm journalism recently competed in national competitions like the California Press Women Conference, the

037Journalism Educational Association competition, the Youth Journalism International, and brought back many national awards for our program. I'm proud that our school has a journalism program which allows students to express their full creative freedom in an academic environment. Um, this summer, Carmmont students are also participating in DDL, the deliber deliberative democracy lab over the summer with Stanford University. And it's a new thing for us. So, basically, there are four pods aiming to address important issues in education such as AI usage through research and democracy. And these pods aim to continue to spread these educational initiatives by working with younger students from middle schools like Aoyo and Terinda across Satel. So that's something that is really exciting for us over the summer. And one last thing that we want to highlight is that college board has also

038recently released some new APs which students have heard a little bit about. AP business principles and personal finance, AP cyber security, and AP networking. These AP classes are especially unique because they apply to everyday life. Regardless of which career a student wants to go to, they can always use those skills in their future. And especially as artificial intelligence becomes more prominent and schools are beginning to shift towards more in-class work rather than outside homework, it is important that students learn how to utilize technology as a as a tool and use it as a way to spark new creativity and critical thinking. As students, there's a lot of rising interest in these new career and technical AP classes. We don't know if it's completely possible, but we would love to see a roll out of these

039new AP courses in the 26 to 27th school year. Thank you so much for those comments. Um, next we'll move on to item number 12, comments from Sequoia District Teachers Association, American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees. As the superintendent said, we had a very nice celebration of retirees um earlier and I noted that three of the retirees had at one point been um site reps for SDTA. Um, one retiree was notably absent from that and I want to take this moment to talk a little about her. She's not in the audience because she wouldn't come. She didn't come this uh evening to the board celebration. She did not come to our site celebration. She does not like a spotlight on her and I don't care. Um when I I first came to the

040Sequoia district 28 years ago, I was uh embarking on my third year teaching, I was all dressed up in a fancy suit that I had bought for interviews and had been wearing for three years at interviews. Um and I was trying my darnest to impress. And um I went into the interview with the vice pre principal who had worked with my mom in San Francisco and um the world language department chair, Jane Slater, and I had my fancy resume and I tried to show off all the special training I'd gotten taking advantage of PD in my previous districts. And I said, "And I know how to do this with classroom management, and I know total physical response, which was the cutting edge foreign language strategy at the time." And in my interview, as my potential

041department chair, Jane turned to me, rolled her eyes, and said, "We don't do that crap here." And that kind of realism permeated her entire career in the district. She created an ecology club at Sequoia that was well ahead of uh the green movement and the times. And then as she saw other people picking up that banner, she found um another cause that was important to our site and our students and our community. and she created the first dream club in our district that has been followed by many other schools and sites. and she leaves behind a thriving club that many um staff are involved in, many students are involved in and is really I think one of the the um best demonstrations of Sequoia spirit on our campus as students come together to build community

042and protect each other and celebrate each other. And so she would hate it, but I wanted to take this time to celebrate her. Thank you. Uh seeing no one from ASME, um we can move on to item number 13, which is approval of the consent agenda. Um board action to approve the following items is taken simultaneously with one motion, which is not debatable and requires a unanimous roll call vote for passage. The action indicated on each item is deemed to have been considered in full and action taken as worded therein. Only members of the board and the superintendent may remove items from the consent agenda. Members of the public may provide comments at the start of the consent agenda item, which may convince a board member or the superintendent to remove an item for further

043discussion. The motion is to wave the reading of the consent agenda, accept the reports, adopt the resolutions, and approve other items. So, are there any public comments on the consent agenda? There are none in person. Are there any online? Please raise your hand. There are none online. Okay. Um, any board members or superintendent wish to pull any items from the consent agenda? If not, would someone make a motion? I move that we approve the consent agenda. Seconded. Roll call. Student trustee Kung. Yes. Student Trustee Lynn, yes. Trusty Cruz, yes. Trusty Thompson, yes. Trusty Gin, yes. Vice President Coup, yes. President Nory, yes. Motion carried. Okay. Next, we'll move on to item number 14, which is uh information items. The first for item is 14.1 presentation of the NSP communications audit I oh do comments we

044have one in person do we have any online please raise your hand this is for item 14.1 okay just the one Edith Salvatore I'd remembered to put my card in. I could have stayed here. Um, I wanted to um thank Naomi and the superintendent for um indulging in this um study. I don't know really what to call it, the report. Um I was part of the um one of the focus groups and I know that there there are times when our members have been asked to give up their valuable time to provide input on things and then a decision is made that doesn't really integrate or reflect a lot of that input but it's it's put out there as a as a joint a decision that we worked on and and consulted on together. And

045this definitely was not that. I sat in that uh focus group and heard frustrations from my members about communication in our district and suggestions. And I read the report and saw that message reflected in the report and really hopeful steps, concrete steps that can be taken to improve communication in our district which will improve so much more. Improved communication will help us to be more successful. It will help us to be more efficient. It will help morale. I really encourage everyone um to look at the steps and it may seem overwhelming, but um I I liked the line that says it's uh not recommended to take on more than two or three of these 10 steps in a year. So, I think we've got a three to four year plan. Um I have some ideas

046uh about what steps one or two maybe should be. Um, but I I think it's a really positive move forward and uh on behalf of SDTA, we really um we appreciate that the district, the board um Naomi reflected um that it was an issue to address and hit the ground running. So, thank you. Thank you. Well, thank you board of trustees and superintendent Leech for giving me the opportunity to talk about an item that is very near and dear to me. And Edith, yes, it might look overwhelming, but actually I'm a lot more excited than overwhelmed. And I've told Crystal that over and over again. I just think that there's so much that we can do here to make communication flow better back and forth. Um when I started in the position which was only

047last September, it feels maybe a little bit longer than that. Uh but my top priority was to assess the district's communication and develop us develop a plan that will help us send out information and listen to information more effectively. Um, that was really the goal and you know that's really grounded in a belief that I've learned over the years in doing this work of public school communication that when you communicate effectively you build trust and then when you build trust you don't get as much resistance things get done more easily and effectively and we just really want our community to understand the decisions we're making and why we're making them. So that was the rationale behind it. Um, when I started, one of my first recommendations to Superintendent Leech was for us to hire the

048National School Public Relations Association, um, so that they could conduct an independent, really indepth review from an outside perspective, um, and that this would include both internal communication, how we as staff communicate with each other, how the district communicates with schools, and then how we communicate out to the broader community. Um before I joined um Sequoia Union High School District, I had the privilege of conducting audit audits like this with districts around the country. So I really um understand how beneficial it is and how it really does um provide us with um some um independent perspective that can shed light on some things that we might not notice uh that we might notice but not completely understand. Um the report that we got a few weeks ago is exactly what I wanted. Um, so I

049just want you to know that I feel really great about it. Um, Superintendent Leech and I have already started going through it. It contains a lot of valuable insights. It assesses our strengths and challenges and it also provides us with a lot of really concrete steps and we've already started to implement some of those, but you're going to see a lot more coming over the next few months. Um, so with that long introduction, I would like to introduce Susan Downing. Susan was the lead auditor on the project. Some of you met with Susan when she was here in January. She lives in Missouri, so she is going to be presenting virtually. But what she's going to provide you with tonight is just a topline summary of uh the findings of the report and the recommendations

050moving forward. And for anybody who's interested, it is an 89page report with a lot of detail and we are um sharing that freely. There's a page on the website where you can find it. Thank you. Okay. Is this where I jump in? Yes, you are good to go, Susan. All righty. Thank you. Well, thank you for that kind introduction and thank you to Superintendent Leech for and Naomi and and the board for inviting Insper to do this communication audit. Um, as we say to all of our audit clients, it it takes some bravery to do this because you have to be willing to take a close look not only at what you do well, but on ways that you can improve and that that takes some courage and some strength. So, you're applauded for taking

051that on. Um, I also appreciate the the unpaid advertisement we got there from your teachers association. And I have to say that the focus groups that we worked with when we were there for our four days um in January, they were so open and so honest. It really made our job as auditors much easier because we didn't have to pull and pry information and people shared freely and and very um genuinely and sincerely and you there wasn't a lot of you know sometimes they can turn into just kind of you know complaint meetings and that wasn't it. It was all very constructive. So, um, my challenge tonight is to go through this 89page report in a short period of time and just kind of give you an overview and a sense of what it contains.

052I really encourage you to take a deeper dive when you have a chance. So, I'm now going to pray to the technology gods and share my screen um, so that I can walk you through this. Great. Are you seeing that? Okay. Yes. Great. Thank you. Just want to make sure you're seeing what you're supposed to see. So, I'm just do a brief overview of what I'm going to talk about so you sort of know what's coming. I'm going to talk a little bit about what the audit process involves. Um, what were the key findings? All right. Before you start, um, we're seeing your speaker notes, too. I don't know if Oh, you are. Okay, that's not what I wanted to happen. Um, let's see. Are you Oh, we can see. Yeah. Is is that just

053the presentation? Yes. Okay, cool. Um, so we're going to talk about what the audit proc Thank you for telling me that. um what the audit process involved, what the key findings and themes we identified, um a brief overview of the recommendations and action steps, um some considerations for implementation. We kind of touched upon those. Uh this isn't going to happen overnight. This is going to take a while. So, kind of just setting some expectations and then I'm more than happy to take your questions. So, just a little bit about me and the team that worked on this audit. Um, I'm Susan Downing and I worked for 11 years as director of communications for a school district in St. Louis. Um, what this group might find particularly interesting is that the five years prior to that,

054I was on the board of education for that same school district and served as president of that board for a couple of years. So, I've sat in your seats and I've made some of the hard decisions that you guys have had to do. Um, and then made the wear transition to be the communications director for the district. Um but that's a story for another day. Um helping me and a lot of you met um my audit assistant Katherryn Carboni Rogers. She is an exceptional PR professional um from the Seattle area and I was very fortunate to have her as my assistant um on this project. There was also a research team back at Inspro who worked on this. I'll start kind of from the bottom there. Jessica Shectton worked on the scope survey component of

055this. Alyssa Terry is in kind of responsible for coordinating and hurting all the cats to make all of this come together. And Melissa Bram is our associate director of INSRA and so she has the final look see and sign off on the report. So what is a communication audit? Um it's a comprehensive assessment of your communication program. Gives you a snapshot of current perspectives about your district. As we know perspectives change over time. And so what we what we have here is how people were feeling um about your district and about your communications program from December um say through the time we got finished with the focus groups at the end of January. And more importantly, it provides a tool that's a framework for developing your communication plans for going forward. What we really hope

056is that you can take this report and really put it to work in developing your communication plans and figuring out how to leverage those things that you're already doing well and then to work on those things that can use some improvement. Um we start this whole process by um taking a look at all the materials that you all have been doing. So, we looked at your print and digital publications, policies, campaigns, programs, what your media coverage has been. We use a meltwater for that, a media service to kind of give us a snapshot of what um how you've been in the news and how you've been portrayed in the news and in the media the last year. We take a look at your websites, your social media, what the engagement has been, and those things.

057You know, everything that we can get our hands on. Naomi was very generous in sharing a lot of information with us um so that we can kind of see what was happening communicationwise um in SUSHSD um up to that point. Then we begin with the scope survey. The scope survey was done in November, middle of November to the middle of December. And what the scope survey does is it gives us a quantitative data about how people are feeling about the school district, about the communication program overall. Um it's this information was gathered prior to the focus groups on purpose so that we can use that information to see kind of get a little bit of a hint of what might be going on where we might need to probe a little bit deeper deeper in

058the focus groups and then use that information so that we can really have productive conversations when we're actually coming in and talking with people. Um we determine uh we set a certain target for the number of excuse me faculty members, parents and community members we need to have complete that survey to give us a a reliable read of what's happening. Now this isn't like a you know polls we're used to in politics and stuff like this where like one or two% margin of error. We're not looking for a right or wrong in this. We're looking for trends. And so we were super happy Naomi stayed really on top of it and you all reached your margin um of error target for each group and that can be very difficult to do particularly with community groups.

059So I really applaud you for the effort that was taken to uh to get as many people involved in that survey as there were. Um so this is just a super top line. There is a pages and pages and pages of scope data for you all to to look at and weed through and and analyze for yourself and we're certainly there on the back end if you have additional questions and we're happy to work with uh Naomi and you all in um you know kind of sussing out any additional information you want. So this consider this very top line but the very first question that we ask in the survey is how what people's perception of the school district is. Um, and while we're while our goal is to to assess the communication program, it's

060it's kind of a chicken the egg thing where the how people feel about the district over overall can affect how they feel about the communication and how they feel about the communication of of the school district can affect how they feel about the district. So we use this as our starting place. So what you can see from this slide is that 71% of parents, 62% of employees, and 48% of community members view SUHD as an excellent or above average school district. And those are excellent numbers. And then what you'll see to the right there, what our scope survey also allows us to do is compare your school district with all the other school districts nationwide who have taken this survey. So it gives you kind of a sense that you know seeing it all just

061on its own doesn't provide a lot of context but we can pro provide context by showing what other how other school districts have performed. And what you'll see from this chart on the right is that you're right there with the national average for by parents employees and community members. And that's a really good place to be. Next we this is an overview of how people feel about the communications in HS SUHSD or Sequoia. Um and what you'll see there is some lower numbers. Um 57% of parents, 25% of employees, and 20% of community members view district communications as being excellent and above average, which you'll notice are are slightly less than their feelings about the district overall and is probably the reason why we were invited to come in is kind of as uh Naomi

062said in the introduction, um that there was a recognized need that there was an area for that. There was a need for improvement in communications and and that's why we're here and that's that's kind of what we're all about. Um, and you can see that reflected when it's compared with the national averages in that chart to the right. They're a tick below, not terribly below the national average, but a tick below for each of the stakeholder groups that we talked to. So, as I mentioned, the scope survey results go on to drill much deeper into the causes for these various results, and those are all included in the full report. You know, I would be here for hours to to talk through them um this evening, and I know you guys have other things to

063do. So, let me talk just a little bit more about the process. Um, as you know, we came in in January to do interviews and focus groups. We talked to 10 different focus groups. Um, as I mentioned, they were incredible. They gave us enormous amounts of information. This was really great for us in that um it's not unusual in the scope report for um uh stakeholders who do not speak English to be a little bit under representative. There's a lot of reasons for that. Nomi Naomi is aware of it. It's always a struggle. But the great news for you guys is that our eel focus group was amazing. It was a large group of people. We had a translator, thank goodness. Um but but they provided us with a lot of information. So while you'll

064note in the s in the uh report um a notation that there was a bit of an under representative under reppresentation in the scope survey. I feel like we compensated for that in the focus groups. I do feel like we really heard from that those groups of people and got some great information from them. We did assure everyone that we spoke with, whether it was in an interview or in a focus group, that their answers would be anonymous and that nobody no nothing that anyone said. As you'll note, there's a lot of quotes in the report, but nothing is attributed to any individual person. Um the interviews were great. the um the focus group, we use sort of a set um set of questions because we we we don't want to skew um the results

065of our focus groups by asking them different questions. So, they're for the most part the same um um tweaked a little bit to for employees versus parents and so forth. But our interviews with the superintendent, the public information officer, the executive assistant of the board, and one of the immediate past board presidents, those are really more discussions to kind of dig into process. so that we kind of understand how communication works from more of a logistical standpoint and a process standpoint and we use that information and combine it um with the other knowledge that we're gaining from our other sources. So we from this we we come home with all these vast amount of information and um our our goal is then to um kind of distill that and find out and and think through

066what are we what did we hear over and over again? what were the themes that we we heard over and over again and and the trends that we seen and so we'll start with the strengths that we heard and there were many um actually the top six on this list were really about the district not about communications but people really wanted to share their appreciation for the broad uh breadth of opportunities that are provided to students um not just academically but extracurricularly and in from wellness programs and things like that. Um they were consistently complimentary of staff and how students are kept at the center of their work. Um they take great pride in the district's diversity. Um we did hear a desire for greater community continuity and leadership. Um with participation kind of sensing

067that some of the communication issues um that can that the district is experienced may be a result of inconsistent leadership and management styles. And that's that's not uncommon. I mean, we we've all worked in um environments probably where, you know, if management's changing and and philosophies are changing, it's very difficult to keep that communication flowing consistently and reliably. And so, we we really did hear that from people that, you know, they're they're very hopeful um that with a little more consistency, some of these communication issues um will iron out. um those who um people are very um aware that the the districts or at least their perception is the district is well resourced. Um those who need English language assistance were feel very supported and aware of the resources that are available to them. We

068were really happy to hear that. Um and parents and employees were enthusiastic about this communication audit. It was great that that people were like this is fantastic. We're really happy this is being done and they see that as a strength in leadership. um that that you all chose to do this report. Uh we also heard a lot about the school-based communications from the PR and that the principles and the PTAs are very consistent and effective um in their communications. So that's also a huge plus for you guys. Um areas for improvement. Um there is no consistent understanding of what the district's role is in communication. that was one of or what the district's role is kind of period. There seemed to be a lot of confusion as to what the district really did and there

069was some kind of feelings like oh that's all just kind of back office stuff you know that just kind of keeps the wheels turnurning and then you know there's other people thinking well there is kind of a leadership role and so there's a lot of inconsistency in what people perceived that the district's role is in the district or what it even should be in the district. Um there's there was not a consistent view of the role the district should play in communications versus the school sites. Um it's not to say that none of it was happening, but when you asked to kind of pin people down on what should the district talk to you about versus what should the schools talk to you about, there didn't seem to be a clear understanding of where those

070lines were. Um there was a desire for the district to play a more unifying role and kind of take control of the narrative. That's that's a phrase we heard a lot um when controversies arise. Um there's a strong desire for district leadership to be more visible in the community um and at the schools. Um there appears to be or there's a perception of a lack of communication and collaboration between and among departments. There's, you know, we kind of saw this kind of motion gesture a lot that there's, you know, people are just kind of not sure who does what and who's responsible for what. Um and kind of going along with that, insufficient processes and procedures for ensuring the communication flows effectively. Um and difficulty in finding the right person to get help or answer

071a question. Now I will say after sharing that list, this is not uncommon. You are not alone. Um you know we do I don't know probably 20 25 audits per year. Um and this is not new news. these are not new problems and there are a lot of things that can be done to address them. So, um take heart. Um and so our role after kind of looking at um all of those themes and trends that we're seeing is to pro provide you all with recommendations. And as you all have said, you know, these are not things that can be done overnight. These are not things that Naomi is going to sit in an office and do by herself. This is going to be kind of a a whole team effort. Um that's going to

072take, you know, if you did every single one of the things in our recommendations, it would take you every bit of four or five years. So, um you know, take a deep breath and know that um you have time and and it's really more a sense of choosing what's going to be your highest priority and what to do first. Um so, I'm not going to go through this list because I'm actually going to go through each of the recommendations very briefly. So, we'll just kind of take it um one at a time there. I'll stop briefly. Are there any questions to this point? We good? Okay. I can't see you, so stop me if I um so the first recommendation is to lay the foundations for establishing a culture of communications because of the history

073of communications in SUHSD. um the communications role um over the years prior to Mrs. Hunter coming on our understanding was there were people in those roles who were more task oriented. They were there to do the website. They were more focused on social media. They were you know they were more task oriented as opposed to um sort of strategic advisors to the district. And what that can lead to very easily is kind of a disjointed approach to communication. And so what our recommendation is is that your first step is to lay those foundation to take those foundational steps um in to get the communication uh program off the ground. The first thing to do is to share the results of the communication audit both internally and externally. And it sounds like that's already been done.

074It's on your website. We're having this discussion tonight. I know the report has been shared with the participants in the focus groups which is amazing. It's always great for those folks who spent time and and took you know hours of their time away from their family, away from their children, away from whatever they had to do to share their thoughts with us and to see that you know that that wasn't just you know it didn't just float away in the air um is a is a really great first step to letting people know that you are listening. Um the second uh step in that process would be to establish a leadership consensus on the district's communication roles and responsibilities. Um and that kind of goes back to in talking about those areas of improvement of

075there just being kind of an un uncertainty and an inconsistency about what the district's role is. So as a leadership team to really come together and have that heart-to-heart talk about what what is it? Who are we and what are we responsible for communicating and portraying and sharing with our community that is different from what our schools need to be doing? Um, and to elevate the communication function and identify the resources to support it. And like any school district, you know, you know, there resources, human resources are, you know, are challenging. I'm sure you know we, you know, everybody'd like to have a great big communications department and that's not always possible. And um we we did share some statistics in the report um just for a little context here. Um among this is from

076the mo most recent membership survey that INSRA has done among INSA member districts of similar size to SUHSD 42% like you have a oneperson communication office. So that is not unusual. Um 50% have two to four employees in their communication department. What that doesn't take into account is people who use outside resources um contract for outside resources and that sort of thing which is something that you all might want to look into. But this is it becomes very difficult at a um district the size of SUSD for this to be kind of just a a one on one person um mission. And so um just to keep that in mind um and then to adopt mechanisms and procedures for asking questions and getting answers. we heard repeatedly and I would say from every variety of

077stakeholder group um that people just don't know where to go for information and part of that is probably because of your growth part of that is probably because of the in changes in leadership changes in roles and things like that but people are just kind of confused about who to go to for information and again you get that kind of fingerpointing thing going on not pointing at anybody but just kind of saying that's not my job I think they do that over there you know, and so, um, just that's kind of some lowhanging fruit really that you all can, um, you know, kind of wrap your arms around that that that might be an easy one to solve, um, to just make sure that, you know, there is awareness of who does what and who

078to go to for information. And we've got some detailed recommendations in the report on how that can be done. And and by the way, I would say all of these recommendations and these action steps that we have associated with them, there's pages and pages of tactics, suggestions, ideas, and things to go along with them. Um so that you can, you know, say, "Yeah, that one will work for us. Uh that probably's not going to work." Um but, you know, kind of mix and match and decide, you know, what what things really might resonate uh with your community. Um recommendation two is really all about planning. um develop a strateg strategic communication plans that guide the district in establishing sound communication practices districtwide and support SUHSD in achieving its goals. This is very foundational and is

079something that Mrs. Hunter is very adept at doing. And so and what we really hope is that this communication audit kind of really provides the basis for create for those communication plans and really provides a basis for getting those plans kind of fleshed out um and kind of put into the implementation mode. The first step of that is developing a comprehensive strategic communication plan which is hopefully what this report lays the foundation for. And one of the primary pieces of that communication plan will be to create strategies and tactics to support the district's strategic communication plan. Um, I know that when the strategic plan was created, there really wasn't the opportunity taken to really kind of explain what that's about and incorporated into your language and and make it real for the all the people

080who uh whose job it was to implement it or understand it. And so we've got some ideas on how how that can be done and how that's worked for some other districts. Um review and update your crisis communication plans. You've got one, that's great. Um just really important thing that you, you know, until you need it, it just kind of sits over there, but it's really important that when when you know issues arise that there's a plan in place and a place to go to to know how the district has determined to deal with those. um and incorporate plans for updating stakeholders on construction projects. You've you passed this measure and I know construction has begun on a lot of things. People want to see that. People want to know how's it going, what, you

081know, and there's a lot of different ways and a lot of kind of fun and creative ways you can share that information and really show your not only your tax uh payers how their money is being spent, but how you are responsibly serving your students um in the ways that you're spending that money and how that really becomes um not just a building, but a learning institution and a learning space. And what's this is where the magic happens and that provides just the perfect ground. um to share that kind of information. Um and then provide opportunities for for district leaders to to review the communication plans. It's it doesn't help for all these communication plans to just be sitting excuse me aside. Um but to really put them in play and for for the district

082leadership to get behind those ideas and those plans and understand um why they're in place and what they're there to do. Take recommendation three um talks about integrating communication into issues management and decision making. Um this occurs by establishing expectations for involving the public information officer into significant decisions or changes right from the beginning. It doesn't you know it becomes much more difficult to communicate after the fact. you know, if you decided this, okay, now how are we going to communicate it? Those conversations about how are we going to communicate it need to be part of that initial planning step. Um, and just become an integrated part of that project. Um, part of that is determining and documenting who is responsible for communicating what. That part, it's part of that, you know, who's responsible and

083who do you go to for a question kind of thing. Um people employees need to understand whose responsibility it is to communicate um various things and and make sure that those things remain in place. Um and make communication a standard focus and administrative planning and decision making process. Um the report includes examples on on how this can be done but it basically involves making sure that communication as I said is an integral part of the initiative or decisions right from the beginning and don't become an afterthought. Um and then ensuring that staff at all levels are informed about significant district initiatives and current issues. You know, sometimes leadership, you know, makes a decision. Maybe it gets to the next level to people who have to implement it. But often times the people who are answering

084the phone, the people who are at the front desk, the people who are really going to be in communication or in contact with people who come in who walk in and say, "Hey, what's going on with this?" aren't included in that loop. So that's just a really important part to start incorporating into your kind of daily communication life is to make sure that those people are informed as well. And again, lots of examples on how to do this in the report. Um and then this next recommendation for is addresses the issue that I talked about of taking control of the narrative. Um we heard a lot from people about just we just want to hear from the district. We know there's not they can't tell us everything. We know they can't share personal information. We

085just want to know they're on it. We just want to know they understand it. We just want to know whatever it is they can tell us. It gives them a sense of comfort. So, you know, even, you know, so as you'll see in number two there, just share clear and timely public information. Even though it's public information that everybody has, it signals that the district leadership is on it and paying attention and something is being done. And that's a lot of times all people really want to know. Well, they want to know everything, but they know that that's the part that, you know, that they can really expect to hear from the district. Um, when issues are controversial or confusing, develop quick fact sheets and make sure they get to those frontline people. Um, engage

086your network of school and community partnerships. We had focus groups with um, school and community partners and they are ready, willing, and eager to be your ambassador. So engage them um and make sure they're loaded with facts and information, particularly if there's something buzzing in the community that is miss or disinformation. Make sure they've got the straight story and are kind of empowered to work as ambassadors for you. Um when there's an complex subject, you know, consider community meetings. I know that's kind of uncomfortable. It's nobody's favorite place to go to say, "Hey, come on in. Let's talk about it." But a lot of times that can diffuse an issue very quickly and um to if you can especially if it's if it's complex or controversial when you can kind of lay it all out

087and that's difficult to do in a in a letter or an email or a social media post, you know, to really sit down and say, "Let's talk about this. Let's lay it all out there and let you know what we're dealing with." Um that can sometimes actually be a really positive steps and then take preemptive steps. So, don't wait until the issue has bubbled over. Um, there's a lot of things that you can do before anything's ever happened. Make sure staff and parents understand what you can and cannot share. So, they don't think in any particular issue that you're holding back. If they just understand this is how issues are dealt with across the board. Um, scan for issues. When you see something happening and it may be happening on a national or international scale,

088you know, that could bubble up in your community, scan for it. Be ready for it. Have conversations about how could that impact us and what can we do to kind of diffuse it ahead of time. You can't always do it, but you can always try. Uh, recommendation five is to expand the district's presence in its schools in the broader community. One of the things we heard um quite a bit is that people want to see the district's leadership in the schools and in the community. And I understand how difficult that is. Um you're all really super busy people, but you know, plan to be in the schools. You know, put it on your calendar and you know, and treat it as you would any other appointment, not as something that's kind of optional. And it

089doesn't have to be about, oh, look at me. I'm at XYZ school. you know, just it can be about whatever event you're going to and you're saying, "Oh my gosh, I went and I said I heard a lot of this in the the public comment um earlier on." I went to the school and I saw this. It was amazing. I mean, it just shows that you that you're engaged and not just kind of sitting off in an office, which I know you're not, but the community doesn't always know that, you know, so they want to see that you're out there and engaged in the true day-to-day business of the school district. um consider investing in some print print publications to the broader community. It's hard to reach everybody in a district your size with as

090much going on. But just if it's nothing, you know, this is what I always say is if it only makes it from their mailbox to the trash can, they will know you tried to communicate with them. So, um hopefully you can, you know, it won't it's not just that, but um you know, it at least, you know, gives lets people know that you're there. Um and then share their story through engaging campaigns and community outreach. There's a lot of suggestions on how to do that. Talk about doing, you know, maybe podcasts can be kind of fun. Just whatever you can do to to share your story in engaging sorts of ways. Recommendation six is to identify and implement systems for share sharing information between the district and the school sites. While people were super uh

091supportive of the communication they got from the individual schools, there didn't seem to be a lot of communication sharing between the schools and the district. And that just kind of opening those lines of communication. And we've got some examples in there on how to do this without layering on responsibility to already incredibly busy busy site leaders. Um, but do things so that we can you can incorporate district level information into the site level newsletter. So if they're not paying attention to the district, make sure that there's a way through the school letter school level newsletters that some district information is infused in there. um identify methods for gathering the good news from the schools and the students so the district can share and reshare good information and provide templates um for common communications. I you

092know I think the principles do what I'm understanding is the principles do a fantastic job on this but it also helps for people to be speaking with a kind of a common voice and so providing those templates of you know so that there so that there is a common voice um across communications can be very helpful. Recommendation seven, um, transition to new or upgraded district and school websites and create an employee internet. Um, before we even really walked in the door, I think, um, Naomi had given us the heads up that the and you, of course, we took a look at the website right off the bat, and it honestly is not terrible. I mean, we've we've seen um websites um from that that need a lot more work, but um but I think there's

093a general understanding, you know, from what I heard that, you know, there there's room for improvement here. And so um steps to do to improve on that is clean up and evaluate the content on the existing platform. um identify the features of an ideal website and figure out how you can get there. Improve the navigability and relevance of the new sites and you can do that through all kinds of user testing. There's a lot in using analytics. Um consider what new features should be incorporated. um develop protocols for website maintenance so people know who's responsible for updating them, how often that should be done, how often um every page is gone through to ensure that it's up to date and has accurate information and just kind of setting up methodologies and protocols to make sure

094that continuously happens. Um develop an internet to provide secure, up-to-date and engaging information to all employees. Um, right now a lot of your employee information is accessible from the homepage of the webs website and it it's not information that's proprietary, but a a better approach to that might be to have an employee internet where employee information is housed um in in a site that only employees can get to. And then that can become a great way to share information with employees um and also engage employees um in in various topics. And then ensuring content on all websites meet accessibility guidelines. And that's just incredibly important these days um so that people with disabilities can access the website and so that on mobile devices everything you know people are looking at your website on phones and

095iPads and all different kinds of devices. So making sure that it's rep your your information is represented properly across all of those different platforms. And finally, recommendation eight, develop a social media strategy that fosters engagement and community involvement. Um the first step in this and and honestly, I will say that from the when we first started working on this audit to now, you've made enormous strides in this area. That has really been an area of focus. you can tell um there are you know there were virtually when I first took a look at social media um for SUSD there was almost nothing there and now you know there's really a lot more content so it's really now um I would say the first priority in this regard is to make sure that people are looking

096at it to you know let people know that you know are you are you have or do you follow us because this is where we're going to share information with you and make sure that you're getting people there and engaging with your information. Um, it can be overwhelming in terms of, you know, making sure that there's two or three posts a week and that the information just keeps flowing. Um, so you can plan a lot of social media content in advance. Um, so that it's not just like, oh my gosh, what are we going to post this week? There can be a lot of planning that can kind of ease that burden. Um, identify what platforms you want to concentrate on. You don't have to be everywhere. If you want just want to do Facebook

097and Instagram, that's great. You can forget X. You can for, you know, a lot of districts just kind of punted X right out the door, you know, a year or so ago. Um, so take on what you can take on and do it well. Um, the the same can be said for the school sites. Um, developing social media presence of the school sites important. It also gives you the opportunity to share information back and forth, like each other's stuff, you know, and and really kind of support each other that way. Um, and then of course putting social media safeguards in place. Um, make sure that you, you know, what your guidelines are for posting informations, what you post, what you don't post, how you engage with followers, how you don't engage with followers. Make sure

098that's all written down and so it's understood right off the bat how this is going to work. A lot of school districts have really that gone a long way in this, you know, from being kind of um almost afraid of social media to realizing that it is something um that can be used as a very effective communication tool. Um as I said, I'm going to finish up here and then ask you for your questions. This is a team effort. Um it is not something that one person can do alone. It has to be a uh mission that you're all on and a journey that you're all on together. Um and it's a long-term effort. So you know I would say 3 to 5 years um you know to to do all the you know not

099that you will do all the things that are in the report but um you know once you kind of pick and choose and your strategic communication plan has been written um you know it it it's going to take you you know every bit of two you know three to five years to to get it all done. So be patient and be patient with each other but it's a it's a journey worth going on. So, with that, um, that is all I have for you and I'm happy to take your questions. Thank you. So, I'll turn over to my board members, see if there any questions. Yeah. Hi, this is Rich. I saw one of the recommendations being to increase the visibility of district leadership. Could you say, does that include board members? And if yes,

100what do you recommend that we do? And if not include what was the last thing? If it doesn't include us, who like how deep does it go in the like who is district leadership when you say that? Um I would certainly say the the the superintendent um the cabinet to a certain extent and I would say the board members and um you know one of the things that I think a lot of uh school districts have done and if I'm I'm maybe if I'm remembering correctly that you all have done where different board members are assigned to different schools and um you kind of make it your business to go to as many you do. No. Okay. Well, if if it's something you might want to consider so that you kind of adopt a school

101and all that really means is that you know you go to as many events and as many things as you can at that school and be just become a a present. You don't have to be like, "Oh, hey, I'm here. Isn't that fantastic?" And make it about you because I know that's uncomfortable, but really just, you know, let let people know that you're there. or let if it's, you know, let the principal or the orchestra lead or whatever, and just make sure that, you know, people that that your appreciation for what's happening in those venues um is expressed and you can um a great way to do that is with social media and just take a picture of the orchestra performing and it's like, "Oh, I went to the orchestra concert last night. It was

102amazing. So happy I was there." uh you know, makes me so proud to be your board member. You know, it can be that simple. But just um letting people know that you're out in the community um and that you're not just, you know, attending these meetings because unfortunately that's that's what a lot of people see and that's and that's what they think that you're so removed from what's happening in the classroom. And I think there's, you know, little steps that you can take to make sure that um they realize that that there's, you know, a deeper level of engagement there and a deeper level of understanding. So when you wrote district leadership, you meant the schoolboard members, and that was something specifically came out during the audit. I'm sorry, say that again. When you wrote

103district leadership being more visible, you specifically did mean schoolboard members and that specifically came out during the audit. Yes. I think yes. I think people would, you know, that was something that was discussed in focus groups is, you know, that people want to see board members. They want to see them, you know, out there, you know, engaging. I have a question in regards to I guess you you talked about social media and posting on social media. So, I have questions in regards to like policies of posting certain things in media and not media. You know what I mean? Like there's there are certain things that we can't you can't post all underageed kids without their consent on social media. So, you said we should be posting, hey, we went to this event and here we

104are. And so, how does that work? You know what I mean? So, I'll I'll take this one. Um so we do have policy in our uh our governance handbook on social media and then in the most recent and we will we were going to clarify in this Friday's update what that would um look like for reposting um what we have already vetted through our social media. that can be a little tricky. Um, you know, but there are ways around that. Just making aware that you are at an event, not necessarily like capturing a picture with students, right? There's ways to do that. Um, so we could we could discuss that a little bit further uh potentially at an upcoming retreat. Okay. Thank you. And we can repost other people's stuff if they if the school

105site reposted stuff. We can repost. Okay. Thank you. I just wanted to clar. Do you guys do photo permissions? I mean, do do families give photo permissions for their students? We we do. You do? Yeah. Okay. As far as supporting Yeah. So, we need some process around that, right? But usually big group pictures, you know, and I'm sure this what what you send out, um, Superintendent Leech will will cover this, but usually like big pictures if they're if people are not personally identifiable are okay. I think I always was curious about that, so I end up not posting anything with kids in it. Any other questions? I did have a question. Um you kind of mentioned it already uh in terms of the parent participation, the survey differing a little bit from the student demographics,

106but you said that you know you got good input from the EL focus group, but uh it also mentions in the report that that context should be considered when we're looking at different things to implement. So um can you just elaborate on that like in in what instances should we take that into consideration as we look through all the recommendations from the report right it's it's a great question and it's really not as I mentioned earlier it's really not unusual to have low participation with non or not low lower um participation for um non-English-speaking parents and there's probably a lot of reasons there but Um, you know, I think I would only take that and I and I think the way we phrased it in the report is when you're looking at the scope survey

107results. Um, and we do take those kind of in, you know, we take that into consideration when we're developing our recommendations. Um, that the scope survey isn't the beginning and end of everything. It really is just a kind of an overall guiding information and really is used more to inform the auditors kind of where to probe and what to talk about when you go into the focus groups. Um, so there are not any recommendations that are made here based solely on the results of the scope survey. It's really much more of a cumulative result. So, I don't know that I would worry about that as it pertains to following the recommendations or taking those into consideration. I think it's something to keep in mind as you dig deeper into the scope survey results um that

108you are hearing from a a mix of demographics that is does not mirror your student population. Actually, I do have two questions. Um my first question is just clarification. Um the list of those nine recommendations, were those in your recommended order of when they should be applied or is that are you recommending that that's up to the district? That's up to us. And it's all up to it's absolutely all up to you. They were they're in the order of priority in terms of you know in big overall things like really laying those foundations and making communications plans. those are upfront, you know, because th those are kind of very foundational. That doesn't mean that I would suggest you ignore recommendations six, seven, and eight. Um, while you're working on those two, there's um kind of

109some what I call lowhanging fruit all along the way of things you can do. In fact, if you look in the report, you'll see um here and there quick wins and re and little icons that say quick win or rethink. you know, it's kind of our way of saying, you know, here's an opportunity to rethink something you're already doing. Here's something that, you know, you could do really quickly and make a difference. And so, I would say, you know, pay attention to those um along the way. Um, but, um, they're really kind of, yeah, the recommendations are in a priority order, but I wouldn't take that too strictly in terms of, you know, ignoring, you know, six, seven, and eight. Perfect. Thank you. Um my and my second question is um we're going to let

110I'm excited. We're going to rock and roll get these going. Do we establish metrics on our own? Is this are there metrics that sort of you recommend as well? Just so you know in the years to come we can evaluate our impact. Right. Great question. Um, so what a lot of districts will choose to do. I wouldn't recommend is what a lot of districts choose to do is to redo do the scope survey in a couple of years. There's no sense in doing it every year. It's not going to, you know, you're going to get frustrated trying to watch the needle move on things, but to you, we do have the ability for um districts to to just do the scope survey to try to see if you know what progress has been made. And

111I'm not touting insper tools. There's certainly lots of different ways. But I think one of the things that you'll do as you develop the strategic communication plans is determine what those metrics will be so that you know you could do your own survey and it doesn't have to be this big elaborate thing. You know you can do uh just kind of checkin with people. It can be a little more informal to determine whether you know do you know where to go to you know to get information. you can just kind of do a pop survey of your parents and you know do you feel like you know who to turn to for information things like that along and that you can do along the way but it is going to be important to determine what

112those metrics are going to be and how you're going to evaluate whether you're making any progress. Thank you. Um, so another question. I I I kind of agree with you that the I know where and how I can direct a question, concern or a complaint is a good lowhanging fruit to tackle. Um, I was uh wondering like I know there was a lot of uh focusing on documenting the processes and defining roles and responsibilities. Um, I know that there was a Golden Bell award. This is like California School Boards Association kind of best practices that was uh granted to Nomus School District for their central intake center for all questions and then they have accountability metrics that are shared with the board twice a year. So I was just wondering since you have national scope

113um is is that a a common practice so that if people don't really know where to go at least there's a center central place to track all these things and that way they get closed out. Yes there there are quite a few applications available and I think some of them are mentioned in the report. Um, one of them is called let let's talk. Um, that is basically just kind of a widget that you can put on your website. So, if somebody doesn't know the a question, it you know they can type it type it in and it goes to a central location where it can be routed to whoever can answer that question. The the great thing about those kinds of applications is that you can then start to see what people are asking about

114and then you can kind be more proactive about making sure that people oh we're getting a lot of questions about registration. We need to make sure people understand where where they go to and how you know what the process is to register their child. Um those sorts of things. So yeah, there's there's quite a few um applications and things that that you know you can look into to see you know where where you want to go with that. Thanks. It's interesting. The Ntomus one is completely manual. So they actually have uh people listening to the phones and taking uh questions that way as well as an email. I think because of their um demographics um a lot of them don't use computers and therefore it's very manual. So I guess that's something we could look

115at too is um how many people will actually take advantage of website widgets versus just send an email and we figure it out behind the scenes. Well, another place to go too is to talk to the people who answer the phones. You know, ask, you know, what are people calling about? you know, re really simple, you know, talk talk to the receptionist at at the at the school sites, at the district sites, you know, and and they'll they know better than anybody what people are having trouble finding because they're hearing about it all the time. Thank you. Um, any other questions? If not, um, thank you so much for that. Oh, you Hi. Um, all of that sounds very wonderful. I was just wondering um what is the timeline? I think I may have missed

116that. The timeline for doing this, we we generally say that like if you go at this full boore um which would be great if if you did, but um you know the districts have a lot of priorities, but we say 3 to 5 years to get to get all of this done um would be reasonable. We generally speaking, if you were to just kind of go, you know, we're going to work on one and two recommendations one and two this year, we're going to really, you know, maybe work on a little bit of that lowhanging fruit, but this next year, all we're going to do, not all we're going to do, but the thing we're going to really prioritize is laying that foundation. You know, trying to figure out how we talk internally and who's

117responsible for what and making sure communication is consistently flowing and developing communication plans. um you know that could be two years of work. It doesn't sound like much when I say it, but when it comes to actually, you know, kind of doing it and implementing it and having it become part of how you operate, um that could easily take a year or two before you're ready to kind of okay, let's tackle the next one. It's also going to depend upon um the extent to which you can um kind of leverage and you know contract for some people to do for it for people to help you out you know maybe with social media strategy or with website development or things that are a little more task oriented. Um you you might have a little more

118success kind of you know dinging off some of those some of that lowhanging fruit a little faster. Definitely looking forward to seeing that. All right. Um, thank you so much for the presentation once again and all the hard work that went into it. Um, I think our district really learned a lot and we look forward to see its implementation. Okay. All righty. Thank you. You all have a good night. You too. Um, moving on to item number 15, which is our public hearings. Um, we'll start with 15.1 public hearing on the 2025-26 local control accountability plan for the Sequoia Union High School District. Um, okay. Yeah, actually before we do that, why yeah, why don't we take a five minute break so we can come back at 7:52 or 3. Thanks. Is everyone ready to

119get started again? Okay. Um, now we'll start with item 15.1, the public hearing on the 2025-26 LCAP for Sequoia Union High School District. I'll call this public hearing to order at 7:54 p.m. Are there any public comments? There are none in person. Are there any online? Please raise your hand. There are no public comments. Okay. Um, seeing none, I'll close this public hearing at 7:54 p.m. Next, we have item 15.2, a public hearing on the East Palito Academy 2025-26 proposed um, local control and accountability plans and LCFF local indicators. Um, okay. I'll call this public hearing to order at 11:55 p.m. 7:55. Oh, 7:55 p.m. Yeah, there are no comments in person. Are there any online? Please raise your hand now. None online. Okay, seeing no comments, I'll close this public hearing at 7:55 p.m.

120Um, next we'll move on to item 15.3, public hearing on the SUSD proposed budget for the 2025-26 year. Um, I'll call this public hearing to order at 7:55 p.m. And there are no public comments in person. Are there any online? Please raise your hand. There are none online. Okay, seeing none, I'll close this public hearing at 7:55 p.m. Next is item 15.4, a public hearing for excess reserves. Um, I'll open this public hearing at 7:56 p.m. There are no public comments in person. Are there any online? Please raise your hand now. There are none among me. Okay. Um, seeing none, I'll close this hearing at 7:56 p.m. Okay. Um, now that we're done with that, we'll move on to item number 16, discussion items. First, we have 16.1, discussion of the Sequoia Union High School

121District 2025-26 LCAP and 2024-25 local indicators. And I'll turn it over to Bonnie Hans. Good evening, Superintendent Leech, members of the board. Happy birthday, Trustee Coup. I know there's nowhere you'd rather be. Uh, and cabinet and audience. And is this the MA newspaper staff in the house all year long? Let the record show they are here during finals week as well. I want to apologize for the color of the presentation. Uh, it was not this shade on my laptop. It was a soothing light green. You can believe that or you can believe that I want you to be even happier than you must already be that you're going to get to hear about this from Liz next year and not continue to hear more LCAP presentations from me. So, thank you for having me before

122you this evening um to talk about the local control and accountability plan and to touch on the local indicators. um a couple of stories this graduation week that I hope will um resonate with you as they did with me as they happened because I tend to think of the LCAP and the local indicators in broad and sweeping terms and most of the time I forget that what they are is a huge overview of all of the students whom we serve. And I had a couple of very sweet reminders of that this past week. Both of them having to do with toasts. So the first one was this past weekend in a vineyard in accidental where I was at the wedding of Sarah Johnson, Menlo Athetherton, class of 2007. I have firmly arrived in my life

123place where I am the friend of the parents of the bride or groom as we were this weekend. And as Sarah was giving her vows, I was silently giving props to the Menlo Athetherton English department because they were gorgeous, far better than those of her East Coast prep school groom. And thinking about how grateful I was for the job that our teachers do for students while they were with us. And then during the toast, um Sarah now, uh is a um uh head of capital for Ripple Works and they um do impact investing. So basically she helps really rich people decide how to philanth what how what they will do with their money philanthropically. Sarah John was it Sarah Johnson's wedding. Um and so um one of the philanthropers I don't know if that's a

124word because I didn't go to MA for English. Uh, one of him started out his speech with a quote from um, Dr. Paul Farmer, who is the head of Harvard's um, department for global health and social medicine. And he said that he went to see Sarah shortly after a friend of his had quoted Dr. Farmer as saying, "The idea that some lives matter less is the root of all that's wrong with the world." And he said he said that to Sarah on his first meeting and told her he wanted to do his part with that. And then he talked about how Sarah has helped him walk that journey for the last 10 years where he can feel really really good about what his um family and their businesses are doing um for their part. And

125I just um my husband likes to remind me it's not all about the Skoy Union High School District. It's a really big world out there. But I was silently toasting in my heart that we send students out into the world to make a difference wherever they are. and um that Sarah Johnson, soccer player of the class of 2000. Um her prom date and good friend was also there with his wife, Circle of Life. Um that um how proud I am that we send out kids who do things like um remind people that whatever they do, they can help be a part of good in the world. The second toast was um a story that Alvaro Calderon told me this afternoon. And interestingly, Albero um yesterday went over to bake Jane Slater, the teacher who Edith

126was talking about earlier because Albero when he was a student at Sequoia High School, never had Jane Slater and he went to see her yesterday to tell her, "I wanted to thank you for the impact that you had on my life." And he said that in his second year at Sequoia, he was a very good athlete and she was volleyball. he played soccer for Ed Huber. Um that um she started stopping him in the hall and saying, "Hey, I hear you're a really good student. Are you taking the AP Spanish test?" And he was like, "What's AP?" He didn't even know what it was. And the impact that he felt like she had made on his life. So today, he was at Gateway's graduation and he was there to support our graduates. And one of

127them was a student who he has spent a great deal of time with over the last four years because twice he has helped this student and his family um come up with alternative to suspension plans. And he said, you know, he's a great kid and I just wanted to be there to say congratulations. And he said the kid cried when he saw that I was there. And he kept saying to him, thank you for coming. I I wouldn't have been be here without you. Thank you so much for coming. Um, his mom works at Whole Foods and I guess she will periodically show up in Alro's office with a loaf of bread and a question about what to do next. And then as Alro was leaving the parking lot, the kid came running up and

128he like, "Stop." And he handed him a Coke and he's like, "This is all I had to give you, but I just wanted to say again how much I appreciated you and what a difference you made in my life." And I thought, "Well, cheers. I think that's one of my favorite toasts of this graduation and celebration season." So, as I talk about the big, and if you hear it often enough, boring LCAP, I hope we will all remember that what we are trying to do with our LCAP, what we're trying to do with our local indicators, with our strategic plan, and everybody who works for this district, including the folks sitting at the podium, um whether you're getting a paycheck from it or not, you're definitely working for it. um that it is to make

129a difference in the individual lives of the students who go to school here so that they can leave and then go make differences in the lives of other people. So cheers to that. Um ad nauseium. Thank you, Bonnie. Once again, the LCAP is the strategic plan for basically the areas where the state has pointed out that we need to grow, that we're not doing as good a job as we need to be doing in serving students, and where we should shore up our game plan. So again, the LCAP is not everything that we are doing in our district by a long shot, but it is the areas where we most need to improve. And to that end, we are required to get input um as we heard about in the communication presentation, which I thought

130was really exciting. Um uh we're supposed to get a lot of input from the people who partner with us in this work. So you'll see here the survey results from this year. I think in part largely thanks to parent square our numbers of family participation went way up this year and what I have in parentheses is the difference between the number of survey takers in each category last year and this year. So for instance um this year 6,170 students took the survey. That's 144 fewer than took it last year but it's still a really big number of students. Staff surveys was up almost double and parent surveys was also up almost double. And then you see the breakdown in parent survey takers in Spanish and in English. And the results of that survey you will

131see incorporated in the LCAP where it talks about how were the how was the engagement that you did, how did that impact what you did to make changes in your LCAP this year and the places where survey results made that change. You saw that when you read the LCAP. These are the various councils that the goals and the actions went to over the course of this spring. This is the second page of all of the councils that the LCAP went to over the course of this spring. And then of course you see where we've had public comment on the district website in both English and in Spanish. The LCAP has been available for the last month and there has been a place for families to or anybody in the community or not in the community,

132anybody who so cares to put in a comment or a question that we are by law required to respond to or that Crystal is required to respond to. We have not had any questions or comments. The board meeting tonight was another opportunity for public comment. And then you dear people, this is all of the time that you have seen the LCAP. This year alone, have or will see the LCAP. The goals, the first one was around addressing suspension for African-American and Pacific Islander students in particular and then chronic absenteeism for our English learners. The second goal is about improving the academic performance, the CASP results of our ELA and math students. We saw we saw big we saw really good bumps. Um we came out of on goal one we came out of red in

133African-American and Pacific Islander. Actually in African-American we went up two levels. We went to yellow and then um we we saw our absenteeism dropped a lot this year as well. So that was good news. We also saw healthy uh growth um in performance on ELA and math. Um, uh, Trusty Gen asked me what I attributed those positive outputs towards and I told him that I don't think one year is enough of a trend for me to start talking about cause and effect. Um, so here's hoping we see that again this coming year and we can start talking about that kind of thing. Goal three is my favorite college and career readiness indicator. What kinds of opportunities are students leaving us with? Uh we didn't have any groups that scored in red on that. So we

134looked at orange groups. Um the recruiting and retaining of a diverse and qualified workforce is goal four. Goal five is a maintenance goal. You are allowed to have maintenance goals. We didn't focus on those, but it you are allowed to say this is something we did that seemed to have a really positive result. So we want to make sure that we keep doing it. And we've seen really good progress in our redesignation um for fully English proficient of our English learners. We want to keep that up because of everything that we know goes along with that. And then goal six, redwood came out of um needing its own separate goal because their graduation rates went really far up. Um but we want to still track that and we want to keep the money that goes

135goes along with keeping that goal in your LCAP. So, this is about keeping general um and EL in particular graduation rates high at Redwood. What's next? We will incorporate the final feedback that we get from you. If you have any this evening, the county has also looked at our LCAP and they had some feedback for us that we are incorporating. Um then we will return it to you for final approval and the circle starts again. the dashboard results will come in and we will look at how we did and we will modify our actions. We'll have suggestions um and where we are on our measurements and then we will be back um you will be back with Liz who would never use anything close to the grain in a slideshow um and to all of

136the groups from whom we get input um to do this again. Next year will be the third year of this LCAP cycle. The other thing before you this evening is the local indicators for 2425 which is where we do our own reflection on how we feel we did on those and if you post them on the state website then you automatically get a good score on them. So and they're frankly and they're tied very closely to the LCAP. Um one of them is engagement. There's a whole section in the LCAP on engagement. Um, another one is hiring and retention. We have a goal on that. Um, so I'm not going to go into any detail on those. Um, they you had them in your packet and they're the same local indicators as you have seen

137in the past. So I welcome any questions that you might have for me and I thank you for your attention. Thank you so much for that presentation. Um, are there any questions from board members? Okay, thank you once again for that. Um, next we'll move on to item 16.2, discussion of East Palto Academy 2024-2025 proposed LCAP and local indicators. Wait, sorry, one second before we start. Okay, thank you. Good evening. I have the pleasure of coming back to talk to you. And I thought I was all done last time. Uh so, um they didn't let me get away with it, but here we are. And I have to follow Bonnie, the pro, so bear with me um as I navigated this learning experience, right, of going through the LCAP this year. And so I think,

138you know, everything that we do ties around our mission, right? making sure that our skill I mean our students will graduate college ready empowered with the knowledge skills and passion to positively impact their own lives their community and the global society. So when looking at the LCAP the feedback and everything that we get is tied to this making sure that what we are doing is going to help us have our students reach this. So I think one of the important things I'm looking at making sure that we get feedback on the LCAP and as you'll see that we had a process for engagement making sure that we had feedback from our students, our parents, our staff, making sure we included our classified staff and our leadership, our administrative team. And so there were different dates

139when it was presented. And so it was just um a whirlwind of a whirlwind of a year, right? It was like the charter renewal, the WASK, and then it's like we got to get to LCAP next. And we thought we were done with one thing, it was the next one. But we made sure to make time for it and to give people enough time to give some feedback. So there were different opportunities um for our families and the students. And one thing that really surprised me is I just didn't realize, right, students, they're just very reflective and um a lot of their feedback like really matched what our staff and what our parents had said as well. And so some of the major feedback that we got back um and I think you know going

140through the reflection process with Wasp really helped and really having us focus on our data and what our needs are. And so common themes um that came throughout number one was need for teacher collaboration and PD to support the academic needs of our students particularly in math as our data has shown and then EL strategies and across the content areas and our classified staff also wants to ensure that they have an opportunity for meaningful PD as well because too many too often we focus just on the teaching staff um and making sure there's tutoring available for students. And so that was something we heard loud and clear from our families and from the students themselves. We want to make sure we offer clubs and opportunities to lead and sports to engage our students and making

141sure we recognize students for their participation. And then a huge part was improvement in how data is collected and having a system for analyzing our data as well. Um so based on those things right we have our different goals and so for goal one under um improving right the rigorous supportive and equity driven program we're looking at increasing funding on some of the actions for better student achievement. We want to ensure that our teachers have the resources they need in order to provide meaningful instruction. And so we're increasing the department supply fund in action 1.1 and also making sure that we have funding for our staff to attend professional development outside of of the district is a big need especially in our math department. Um and so again this is just showing here that what

142our different um items were increasing department funding and then um the professional development for our whole staff. Um as far as goal two for our annual pract uh progress, we believe that our actions are making a difference as we did see a slight increase and we believe that offering tutoring supports our students that are struggling and alo actually also our co-taught classes. So we will be increasing what we offer next year to support during school hours. That was a big message from the families especially making sure that we're offering things during school hours not just after school for students to have access. And so we're increasing the number of study skills class that we have and making sure that we have more tutoring available. And then when we do look at this goal, we just

143had to change some of our data to make it more consistent. Uh we had different reporting for the literacy and the math. And so then we just made sure to align it that the data was the same. And that was some of the things that we had to clean up that was really hard to figure out where the data had come from and especially with transition and leadership and it happening again. And so I was really glad that I was able to get some help from the district and making sure that our our data is very clear and that it doesn't matter who's, you know, in charge that we know where the data is coming from. Um, and then as you've seen some of our data already, right, looking at the data that we had,

144you know, progress in our language arts. Um, and then in our math, this is an area that we definitely need to make sure we work on. And that is where we want to make sure that our teachers have access to that professional development and we're supporting our students with the tutoring during the class time. Part of the WASK is also uh looking possibly at a flex time. And so that's something our staff decided to wait to roll out to really plan it out in the fall and to begin that in the spring so that our students can get support with the math because as you see this is our biggest area of need when we look at data. And then this is just an example of how we're making sure to align our data that

145our ELA and our math data match because before it was different and it was really hard um to tell it apart. Um and then as I mentioned, we're making sure to support during class time with our study skills and our um co-taught classes. And then as far as English learner success, um this goal um we have a teacher dedicated to providing professional development and ELD strategies, coaching, and support. However, it didn't happen as planned. We had a big challenge because of our staff meeting time devoted to all of the WASK and the charter planning. Um, and so this is an area that we definitely need to work on, but we are happy that a lot of our staff did attend the district professional development of constructing meaning and we hope that continues to increase. We're

146really promoting that. And then in this uh one, we also had a decline in our parental involvement participation. And so, we need consistent support for our ELS and our staff. And then we hope that having staff meeting time back for PD um and a staff member present to support in the classroom should make this goal more effective this next year. And again this is showing our EL students again they showed significant progress when looking at the data and so we want to continue to have that support for them. Um as the data indicates here again that our students have increased you know 15.5% this last year and then this is the area where we definitely need to focus on. We went down from, you know, 15 to 25 to 10 to 15 actively involved families

147in the monthly meetings. And so we really want to work on this area and bring in more of our families to be involved. Um, and so for these items, what we are changing and looking at the ELD curriculum um was that the one that was on our LCAP was one that we never used. And so our um bilingual resource teacher actually did some research and we'll be using EL achieve. So we changed that um to indicate so our plan is to use EL achieve now and then as far as community engagement we have a lot to be proud with this goal and the improvement in our rates for attendance chronic absenteeism dropout rates and suspension rates and then the areas that have been challenging are with parental involvement um and so um and attending our

148workshops. However, we did see an increase in attendance to our student led conferences and we really want to build on that and use our adviserss and our advisory program to increase the parental participation in those other areas that did go down. As far as items changing in this goal for afterchool programs and sports, we want to make sure to maximize our um rental fees that we get to support our athletics program and having and recognizing our athletes and club participants and the activities that they do because it increases the school connectedness for our students. When it comes to restorative justice, we're increasing the contract for full-time support for our um we work with the Peninsula Conflict Resolution Center to have a staff member there. They were only there two days a week and so we

149saw a big need to have support for more behavior and for the teachers, right? Making sure they are supported with strategies that they can use in the classroom to help with some of those behaviors. When it comes to our action 4.7, the service leadership class was something that we were going to cut out because the master schedule didn't allow for it. But then in speaking with the students and having like 60 students wanting to taking to take it, it's something that we are putting back on there and seeing how we can offer that for our students because there's a great need for that. Um, when it comes to goal five, this is an area again that we've had success uh when it comes to the college and career readiness. There's been success to having a

150dedicated staff member. We really attribute it to that. We have a senior seminar teacher that works year round on all the metrics. Uh and then we have our counseling team and our college and career specialists that works on those areas with our students. And again, our data, this is one of our strengths where we've had our students um they've outperformed in this data compared to the state. Again, we increase 20.9. When we talk about the graduation rate, again, it's an area that we take a lot of pride in. we hope to continue to do. Um, action 5.2, this is where we added, we went making sure that our students had Chromebooks to support them with their college readiness. So, we make sure to have funds for that. We increased our budget for summer school because

151we have students coming in a little bit lower than what we've used to so they have more courses to take to make sure that they catch up and can stay on track to graduate. And then when it comes to our college visits, again, something that we take a lot of pride in, making sure that we have enough funding to support the weekend work that a lot of our staff do to provide more college opportunities aside from just two. We're talking about taking a lot of other trips to local colleges that are not covered when we visit the one in the fall or the Southern California trip. We have a lot of students wanting to go like to Sacramento State or a lot of students want to go to UC Davis. And so it's like we

152have the vans, we just need to make sure that we have the funding available to provide these opportunities for our students. And then last but not least, it's the budget overview for our parents that we have here. And then as you'll see are that just when it covers the expenditures that are not covered, that would just be the general operating expenses, administrator salaries, and then the stirs on behalf cost. And so what we need to do next is just make sure to get some final feedback from folks and then return for final approval and then continue action items to achieve our goals. Are there any questions? Thank you so much. Um do my board colleagues have any questions? I have one just wondering about this um parent participation because when I was there I did

153see some parent participation. So, how do you think you want to increase how can you increase or how do you think you want to increase the the parent participation in some of these? A big thing is personal contact because I feel like we've relied a lot on um on just messaging and so I really feel reaching out on personal contact and then using our advisors and I think in using we've had some conversations about like having them recommend one or two parents per advisory class kind of having like room parents like you do in elementary school, right? And then maybe that way that'll help increase it, right? if we have one or two per class and then we reach out to those and hopefully bring out more families. But the personal and that's really working

154because we have this one phenomenal freshman mom right now and she herself brings like those other four or five people with her and so having incentives for families to bring other people on board I know like really works. So we really want to push that next year. Thank you so much for that presentation. Thank you. Okay. Um, moving on, we have item 16.3, presentation of the SUHSD proposed budget for 25-26. Good evening. Venita and I are here tonight to present the proposed budget for the 2526 school year. So, our presentation tonight will cover a few areas. We'll start with a recap of the governor's May revise, review our estimated actuals for the current school year, go over the main budget assumptions for the 2526 school year, present a summary of the budget and our multi-year

155pro uh projections, and we're going to talk about other funds and um the outline of our next steps. So, this is just a reminder of our budget cycle. Um, as you can see, we're in the orange phase uh uh that's leading up to the um LCAP and budget adoption that's going to happen next week. So, this is a continuous cycle of planning, implementation, and adjustment throughout the year. So a a sign significant factor impacting our budget is the governor's may revise which indicate uh projected state budget shortfall of $12 billion. So he made some adjustments in the education budget to address this shortfall. One key point for us include the statutory cola which has been set at 2.30%. This is lower than the 2.43% that was projected in January. This cola will affect the LCFF

156calculation and some of our categorical programs such as special special education, our universal meal program, mandated block grant and adult ed. Um, additionally, the governor has reduced some onetime dollar investments which two will impact our district and that is the learning recovery emergency block grant. Um the a new one is the student support and professional development discretionary block grant. Um I wanted to note that these are not included in the budget um because we don't have any details on it but once we have um additional information on these two programs we'll have an update for you. Additionally there are deferrals. Um our June aortionment will be pushed back pushed to the following month in July. Um even with these deferrals the district will not require uh TR issuance for cash flow purposes. So this slide

157is um a summary of our estimated actual for the current year. So it provides a detailed breakdown of our revenues and expenditures compared to our second interim report. We see a total combined revenue of approximately 250 million against combined expenditures of about $259 million. This results in a combined def uh deficit of around $18 million which includes other finances and sources and uses. Our ending fund balance for 2425 is estimated to be about $45 million with an unrestricted fund balance reserve percentage of 9%. So I'm going to talk about the budget assumptions that we used for the 2526 school year. We are projecting stable enrollment and funded ADA across the next three years. However, I wanted to point out on EPA's enrollment. Um even though we're estimating flat enrollment for next year and the two

158out years um I wanted to point out that it's lower than the current year. The current year enrollment for EPA is 278 uh which means next year they would get less state funding while are the expenditures are increasing therefore uh requiring the general fund to um add additional support to the program. The local control cola is set at 2.30% for 2526 school year. We have also projected employer rates for stirs pers and um sooie which is the state unemployment insurance along with the step and column increases. I wanted to point out our um property tax growth. It's projected at uh increasing at 4.37%. Which is lower than the historical trend of 5% or more. Um I wanted to say that when we look at our projected um property growth in uh the property goes um

159the our projected increases in health and welfare. the step in cost for certificated and classified and the employer rates. Um it's showing that the revenue generated from our property tax increase is less than the rising cost. So this indicates that um we have some fiscal challenges and we will be monitoring property tax um growth as reports come out. So, Venita will be talking about property taxes, our favorite subject. Thank you, Christine. Good evening, uh, everyone. So, this slide provides a closer look at the property tax projection for 2526. Our total property tax revenue is projected at approximately $217 million. This is an increase of 9 million from the previous year and this represents 4.37% change and as Christine mentioned this is this growth is slightly lower than what we have seen historically. This is the

160summary of local property tax transfer to the charter school charter schools. Although there has been a decline in enrollment in recent years, the financial impact has not has been mitigated due to the increase in cola. Everest public school is closing at the end of this school year and their charter in Lu has been allocated to summit prep on the assumption that those affected students would be moving to summit prep and we will adjust it at first interim as we have more information available. So this slide is on our proposed budget. Um we built our budget based on the assumptions that I just talked about. Um, so our total projected revenues for the 2526 school year are approximately $252 million with total project expenditures projected at $254 million. So this is um so we're anticipating to

161deficit spend about $1.2 million. Um so the net increase decrease to our fund balance is projected to be about $10 million. that's including the transfers out. Um, so that will bring our estimated ending fund balance close to $34 million. So this slide is are the components of our ending fund balance. Um it shows uh the 2425 school year, the restricted ending fund balance of $16 million and what we have assigned for the 24th school year. And so we have assignments of $4 million in vacation liability for some basic aid uncertainty and for inflation and for potential settlements in the 2526 school year. the assignments that we have on the restricted side is $12 million. So that's telling me us that we're spending down our uh fund balance for the restricted programs. On the assignments, we

162kept the same assignments except for settlements because we included that in our budget. So our assignments has reduced from $4 million to $3 million um in the 2526 school year. So this slide is looking beyond the 2526 school year. The multi-year projection provides an outlook for the 2627 and the um fiscal years. I wanted to note that these projections do not include any future salary settlements. Um we continue to uh anticipate some fiscal pressure on our fund balance. Um because you because you can see that the fund balances fund balance is decreasing and also our um reserve is decreasing. For 2425 for 2425 school year it was at anticipated to be at $9 million. For 2526, we're anticipating the fund balance to be close to 7%. And then 26 27 and 2728, it's around 5

1631.5%. In addition to the general fund, uh this slide summarizes the financial outlook for other funds such as stu student activity fund, charter school fund and capital facilities fund among others. Each of these funds play a vital role in supporting district's operations and initiatives. While overall other funds show a positive ending balance, a closer look at fund 9 is required which houses the revenue and expenditure for EPA. As Christine mentioned, due to declining enrollment, EPA will be receiving lesser LCFF revenue. However, on the other hand, staff salaries are increasing as they are based on the district salary schedule. This creates a structural deficit in fund 09 requiring general fund to make annual contribution of close to $2 million to balance their budget. This growing dependency on general fund warrants strategic planning to address and ensure

164financial stability of fund 09. So, this is looking ahead or our next steps. Um, in June, we're recommending that the board approve the 2526 LCAP in the proposed budget. Um, the state will adopt their budget and if any additional information that we have that comes out from the um enacted budget, we will give an informal 45day budget revision to the board. And in September um we will bring to the board a report out of the 2425 un audited actuals. So any we are open for any questions or comments? Thank you so much for that presentation. Any questions? Can you remind us our board policy on ending fund reserve balance? It's at 8%. And the proposed multi-year projection goes below 8%. Correct. Based on these projections. Yes. So the proposed budget violates our board policy on

165reserves. How should we think about this? I mean, should we change our policy? Are we we're going to approve a policy that we project to go below it or we think Well, I think we would have to pull the language. I don't I don't think I think violate is is it is it is Yeah. Um yes. Can you pull back the um the my slide please? Okay. This is like I can't I am getting blind. Okay. I know some of the numbers are likely to come in better. Some of the numbers are likely to come in better. I mean budget is so early May revise and the numbers from from the governor have not been incorporated in this in addition to for the first time our property taxes are be projected for current and outy

166years below 5%. That is definitely something for us to watch. Um we will know more in September when we close the books. um that will be a very telling point for how we move forward. So the estimated actuals, the property tax projections are based on the P2 report which is in April and we won't get the final report until August. We June is, you know, that's when we're closing the books. So we have anticipated it slowing down. Um I recall before co anticipating it slowing down uh on these out years. Um I am I am surprised that we are showing uh so far below 5% at this time of the year. So again September is really going to be um an opportunity for us to re-evaluate. This is multi-year, so um we still have opportunity.

167There's still revenue that's not captured within the projected budget. We will likely be finishing um current year higher than the for just under 5% property taxes, which will then boost the revenue for next year. and then we can make necessary budget adjustments um for the out years to get us as close to eight as possible. Um just curious I completely understand if you don't know this. Do you know how other districts are doing with their reserves? Is it also kind of crunch time for a lot of districts in our Sanato County? Yeah, the main at the last superintendent meeting I was talking to the Sanonteo Union uh superintendent and we were talking about property taxes and and the commonality that they are showing the assessed values showing a lot lower than what we have this

168time of year in previous years. I I have a question. Um because e I'm going to go to the EPA enrollment at at 278 and we're essentially supplementing that 2 million budget $2 million for next school year. Are we is that built into this multi-year projection that we're going to and I is that 2 million staying or how how did we project that in terms of incorporating that um dipping lower and lower? The support to EPA is included in the multi-year. It factors in step costs, the health and welfare increases. So those are factor in. So okay. So that so we're projecting 2 million support next year to help them fund their budget. Is that same 2 million then for the following two years? No, it's adjusted uh revenues and estimated expenditures. Yes. Okay. Okay.

169And then this might just me understanding budgets. Um on the slide where it said the settlements went away because it was now included in the budget. Can you put that in non-financial ter layman's terms? What what did you why did that go away? Instead of assigning it in the bottom line, it's included in the expenditures on Oh, it gets its own line item now. It didn't have one. Got it. Okay. Thank you. It's not as squishy anymore. Got it. Thank you. That that was perfect non- language. Okay. Any other questions? If not, um maybe just broadly at what point should we start making hard decisions? I mean it not now but soon or like after September or it's after September and uh and I think the conversation will look very different at first interim. Okay.

170Um, thank you so much for that presentation. We really appreciate it and we look forward to hearing more about the budget in the upcoming fiscal year. Okay. Next item is item 16.4, first reading of board policy 6142.93, science instruction. Okay. Are there any public comments on this item? There are no no comment public comments in person. Are there any online? Please raise your hand. There are none online. Seeing, I'll turn it over to assistant superintendent Hansen. This is an update on our language around science instruction. It is all recommended language coming from CSBA, which is why it is before you this evening. Uh in the first paragraph, the changes that they are suggesting are not mandatory. they're giving more details on things that they think we should address in science. The rest of the um

171changes are mandatory. The first one is that you will adopt standards that if they are not NGSS, they meet NGSS and other science standards and then that we will be safe. We will follow our policy around regulation 5142 when it comes to science and then again when we are reporting to the board that we will show that on science that we are meeting NGSS standards plus if we choose to adopt other standards we are also meeting the NGSS ones and we use NGSS standards. Okay. Um thank you so much. Does our board member have any questions? Okay, seeing none, um I think bring this back on consent. Um next is 16.5 first reading of the new and revised board policies in AR's student services department. Um any public comment on this item? There are none

172in person. Are there any online? Please raise your hand. There are none online. Okay. Seeing none, I'll turn it over to assistant superintendent Shakone. Good evening. So, this is the next batch of CSBA updated board policies and administrative regulations in the 5000 series, which is everything having to do with student services. So, on this one, the and all of this language is CSBA updated. None of it has been modified by by the district. Um so per CSBA updates the first one is on student records where they are giving revised guidance on sharing student information when it comes to immigration enforcement in schools. It clarifies the language of retention, disclosure and security of student records. Um much of this having to do with Furpa and um and following the the federal law for student privacy. Uh

173the administrative regulation update related to that reflects the guidance on how to respond to immigration enforcement in schools. It clarifies language through adding several definitions. Um it adds that the district is prohibited from disclosing student records to those legally prohibited from having access under a restraining order. and it adds that student information can be released to the appropriate person in connection with an emergency if necessary. Um, when it comes to the health and safety of students, board policy 5131 is about conduct. There is a new law, Assembly Bill 3216. It requires um that we develop and adopt every five years a policy that will limit or prohibit the use of smartphones at school. And I think the reason it's probably every 5 years is because of the constant updating of technology. Um and as we've

174discussed up here before related to another board policy, we are looking into um how we're going to enact legislation related to cell phones at schools. Um and that is in the year to come. Um, the student services department is working on it with our administrative vice principles in board policy and administrative regulation about alcohol and other drugs. Um, I was actually really thrilled to see the Sequoia HOSA um, come today to present the work they've been doing. It's very related to this and I actually went to the gym while they were doing the the fentanyl presentations and the CPR presentations and that is all in line with this which is exciting to know. We're definitely on the cutting edge of that. Um, it just talks about in the annual parent notification that we give every

175summer that we need to include the dangers of synthetic drugs such as fentanyl um and use of social media to market and sell them just to create more parent awareness around the dangers of this and the issue that we're seeing. Um, we update to prohibit the suspension of students who voluntarily disclose their use of tobacco product, controlled substance, alcohol. Um, again looking at that with the APS should this go into effect per per the board adoption. Um, what that could look like when it means to support a student um when it comes to drug and alcohol misuse. Um, it updates to include the ability for students to carry opioid antagonists such as um, nlloxxone and we've trained students on how to use it. Again, HOSA has engaged in training students to use Nlloxxone. Currently we

176have it in our nurs's office. We have it by all our AED stations on campuses and our campus security carries it around as well as in our administration offices. So we do have it on our campuses. This would just allow students to carry it um in case of emergency and it updates to include staff alter using alternatives to refer a student to law enforcement if there's anything involving drug opioid use. Finally, it adds a requirement for instruction when it comes to the effects of alcohol on depression and anxiety in students and that's embedded into health education which would also be embedded into our life skills PE courses. Um, before we move on, I had a quick question about this one. Um, for bullet point number two, would it still affect a student who brings those

177control substances onto campus and then discloses it? Or is it more so if they disclose in general that they So I my sense of this from reading it is that it's if a student discloses they're having an issue, there is an issue. It's it wouldn't be something that we would practice here anyways. We wouldn't say, "Oh my gosh, you've been drinking alcohol, you're suspended, you know, or you drink alcohol, you're suspended." Like to in in our schools and in our cases, we would treat this more as a wellness issue. And how can we get a student support for a student to be bringing drugs and alcohol to campus, that is still a suspendable offense if if that makes sense. I think they're just saying any student who's saying, "I have a problem with this. I

178am a user. I I need help and support that it's not a disciplinary issue." Whereas some some schools and districts may treat it as such. That's clarifying. Please don't treat it as such. Get the student help. Okay, that makes sense. Thank you. And sales on campus are always um also potential for principal recommendation for expulsion. and that that stands um when it comes to mental health updating that board policy and administrative regulation on suicide prevention intervention postvention um it's just essentially intended to address broader mental health issues that are facing our students um it allows anyone who's 12 years old and older which normally if it's about younger students I don't put it but for if any random reason we did happen to be serving a 12-year-old maybe someone who'd skipped grades. I actually thought,

179well, this is probably worth leaving in the board policy because I didn't know Trusty Coup, if you might have a question about that because sometimes you've asked about the elementary policies. So, this is for anyone 12 years and up. So, it is for our students, but extends down to 12 years old old. Um, they can consent to mental health services themselves. And the way it's worded, if they're mature enough to participate intelligently as determined by the mental health staff. So it doesn't necessarily have to be a parent consent in this case is what that board policy is saying. And then it also adds the option to use teleaalth. So um which has been used in our district before. I think it again just something that's updating that that wouldn't be new to use zoom for

180teleaalth with students or I guess I shouldn't say zoom to use a confidential platform like zoom for teleaalth with students. Um, next is the suicide prevention. Uh, it adds more language that is more trauma-informed crisis management language. It's about school-based mental health professionals making regular contact with high-risisk students. Um, that's something we're always working on and can always improve on is really identifying those high-risisk students and making sure that we're continually reaching out and checking in. Um, and then it adds several definitions which you can see there in the quotations just to make sure that everybody is on the same page with what you know mental health professional is or student suicide crisis is. And then finally, it requires school ID cards to put the suicide and crisis hotline on the back which I'm proud

181to say we already have and have had implemented in our district. So some of these things we can check the box we're doing them already. Uh and then the final one is with 514513 more about response to immigration. The earlier one was just about student records specifically. This is about immigration spec specifically. So it prohibits seeking or requiring information of immigration status. That's been standing anyways. We don't require immigration status of students. Um this codifies that in ed code. Um but along with that it also prohibits compiling a list or a database of individuals based on national origins, immigration status, religion, other protected classes. Again, we don't compile those databases. This is just saying don't compile those databases. Um and then it's updated to include requirement of obtaining consent to release immigration related student information.

182I know one area that tends to come up is with fasta. um our counselors have brought that up that that's information that they seek and should they continue to seek that that's a question I think that we all have and we all ask but this is saying that if you were going to seek that information and ask parents to check that box in the fasta application you would also have to con get their consent um that this these documents might be turned over. Um, it talks about when and how law enforcement should register as visitors, which in our case is always, and we talked at a previous board meeting about our signage, making sure people know where the front office is that they need to stop in there as a visitor. And that's just not

183law enforcement officers, that's any visitor on campus, law enforcement officers included, need to stop in the front office. And then how to comply in exigent circumstances that is in there because we saw over and over when the immigration rules started to change the word exigent circumstances. You must turn over this this information in exigent circumstances and there were a lot of questions. Well, what are exigent circumstances and what exactly do we do in that case? And so this helps define it further for us. Although our um uh guidance for the schools and our sites has always been call us, we'll call legal and we'll work on this together in exigent circumstances. But this does help define it a little bit further just state of Californiawide. And then they've moved the language from the administrative regulation

184into board policy. Sometimes they move those back and forth. We again we've seen that before as well. So this was one area where that was done. Okay, thank you so much. Any further questions from board of trust? Sorry, I I think I just need clarification because I'm worried about the require sorry I cannot see requirement of obtaining the consent to release immigration related student information. You used Kata as your example, but in theory the students are filling out the dream act. So they it could be students or it could be parents um and they do include that that question worry that we're going to have students who not who are going to then not do it and then not get the funding they need right and that they're rightfully owed. Yes, that I'm just I'm

185bringing that one concern concerns me. Yes. And we've had counselors bring that concern forward as well. If if people are too fearful to fill out that application, that information, then they've lost that opportunity. And it's a real concern. I don't Right. But I'm saying if the student and the family fills it out on themselves, the school doesn't need any consent. This is only as if if the school was filling it out for helping them fill it out, that kind of thing, asking for that information to fill it out. Yes. Okay. Yes. Okay. And in the past, the state of California has asked that schools have every single student fill it out. In the past two years, that's been the case. Yes. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, and and the concern you're raising is one our

186counselors have raised as well. And Okay. Yes. So, it is on the radar. It is on the radar. I don't know that there's a solution. It is on the radar. Okay. Um, no further questions. Thank you so much. Um we can bring this back on consent. Okay. Um next we'll move on to item number 17 action items. Um 17.1 adoption of resolution number 014 approving engineers reports confirming diagram and assessment and ordering levy of assessment for fiscal year 2025-26. Um I'll call this public hearing to order at 8:55 p.m. Are there any public comments? I have none in person. Are there any online? Please raise your hand. There are none online. Okay. Um I'll then close this hearing at 8:55 p.m. Um are there any board comments on this item? Okay. If not, um I

187can I get a Motion to approve. Okay, I got a second. Seconded. Second. Roll call. Trusty Cruz. Yes. Trusty Thompson. Yes. Trusty Gen. Yes. Vice President Coup. Yes. President Nari. Yes. Motion carried. 5 Z. Okay. Moving on. Item 17.2, adoption of resolution number 015 for a temporary inter fund loan transfer at the year end not to exceed $800,000. Uh any public comment on this item? There are none in person. Are there any online? Please raise your hand now. I see none online. If not, could I get a motion to approve the agenda item? Motion to approve. Seconded. A roll call. Trustee Cruz. Yes. Trusty Thompson. Yes. Trusty Gin. Yes. Vice President Coup. Yes. President Nory. Yes. Motion carried 5 to zero. Now item 17.3 adoption of resolution number 016 budgetary increase and transfer at year

188end for fiscal year 2024-25. Um any public comment on this item? There are none in person. If there are any online, please raise your hand. There are none online. Okay. Any board questions? Otherwise, can I get a motion to approve? Uh, I move to approve the resolution. Second. Roll call. Just Cruz. Yes. Trusty Thompson. Yes. Trusty Gin. Yes. Vice President Coup. Yes. President Nori. Yes. Motion carried 50. And then our last action item of the night, 17.4, adoption of resolution number 017, state seal of civic engagement. Are there any public comments on this item? There are none in person. Are there any online? Please raise your hand. There are none online. No, I'll turn it over. Hello. Good evening, President Nori, Vice President Coup, Board of Trustees, Crystal, Superintendent Leech, Cabinet, etc. Okay, I'm going

189to be I love being the headliner, the last act of the night. Um, and I get to talk about something joyful tonight, which is another opportunity to recognize excellence in our students. So, I'm going to bring to you a proposal to adopt district requirements and a process for students to apply for and uh to be awarded the state seal of civic engagement beginning in the 2526 academic uh year. Um so the state of California um the California Department of Education created guidance and criteria for districts to be able to recognize students for who demonstrate excellence in civic engagement and participation along with an understanding of US and state constitutions and um democratic government. So the state has five criteria uh which local education agencies must um create define the requirements for for their context. So

190uh one of the key principles is that it has to be accessible the criteria um the way that students meet the requirements has to be accessible to students from all backgrounds. So, I'm going to pre present to you what we are proposing as requirements for our district for students to be able to apply and be awarded the seal of civic engagement. And um they were created by a working group of staff and community members and then we took it out to parents, staff, leaders, and um students for some feedback. So, uh, it's good timing because it aligns the seal of civic engagement aligns really well with our, um, portrait of a graduate that's part of our strategic plan, especially civic-mindedness and community centeredness. Um, okay. So, I'm going to outline the state criteria and how

191we've defined the requirements. The first is uh for students to be engaged in academic work in a productive way. So, in our district, what that will look like is that they're we're going to ask students to be either on track for graduation or a certificate of completion or to be enrolled in an alternative credit earning um program at the time of their application. And then we've also developed a waiver for students who experienced hardship but have shown academic improvement over their time. Um the state course requirements uh criteria are for students to demonstrate an understanding of US and California constitutions, the functions of local tribal governments, and the role of citizens in democracies. So students in Sequoia will meet that by having passing grades in US history and government. Um but we also wanted to

192give students a pathway to be able to apply before they take government in their senior year. um if a student wants to earn it in their junior year so they can include it on their college application for example. So we have um uh a couple self-paced modu online modules that students can complete for uh the government requirement. The state uh the next state criterion is for students to participate in one or more civic engagement projects that address real world problems and the state outlines that students have to identify and acquire into civic needs or problems considered varied responses take action and reflect on their efforts. So in Sequoia, what that will look like is that students will submit a process product that will include information about how they picked their real world pro problem or

193need and explored the root causes behind it. Um how they worked to address the issue in a substantive way um or through a substantive engagement um what challenges and successes they experienced in the process and how the project influenced others or contributed to change. So the product can be a written product of about 4 or 500 words. It could be um a video, a podcast. It could be any number of things. A video podcast about four or five minutes. Um the state criteria also requires student reflection. So in our district that will be a reflection product also can take varied forms and a little bit shorter than the uh process product. And finally, students will need to meet the state criterion of um exhibiting character traits that reflect civic-mindedness and a commitment to positive impact.

194And they'll do that with a recommendation form that will be very easy for recommenders to complete. Okay. Students will have access to a bank of resources to guide their work, including a road map and checklists and templates for their process product and for their reflection product and a whole bevy of resources to support um their project and their products. Okay. So after we put together the requirements and the um the supports for students, we took it around for feedback. Most of the feedback uh we received had to do with questions about how students would learn about it. Kind of connects to our earlier uh discussion about public information and communication. So, I'm sure we'll avail ourselves of new and improved um systems for communication and we'll get the word out. And um we our next

195step is for you to adopt the state seal of civic engagement and then we'll publicize the requirements in the fall and accept submissions in March of 26. Any questions from board members? I'm just excited uh that we're embarking on this because uh we we heard about this earlier um last or late last year and so um one of the workshops they were saying that the students really um got a lot out of pursuing it u because they were helping their local community on getting out the vote and you know just following what was going on um in the election process in their local community. So that was great. Absolutely. And so many of our students are already engaged in civic participation. I asked the parent or the student advisory council and half of them said

196that they were already doing something really cool in their community. Uh I was just a little curious like what exactly conudes like a project like if someone spends a quarter interning for like their congressman's local office, would that be something that constituates um community or public civic engagement? Yeah, absolutely. I think the um what it's not is a oneanddone beach cleanup. You know, the mo most important part is the uh process that a student identifies something that matters to them in their community in their world that they explore the um the issue through a root cause analysis. So they consider various forms of taking action related to their interest and and then they have a rationale for being able to select it and then they can um describe how their actions had an impact. Okay.

197If there are no other questions, um thank you so much for the presentation. Um could I get a motion to approve this resolution? Motion to approve. A second call. Roll call. Trusty Cruz, yes. Trusty Thompson, yes. Trusty Gin, yes. Vice President Coup, yes. President Nori, yes. Motion carried 50. Um, now we're on item 18, future agenda items. Um, are there any future agenda items? This is minor, but I I I think with the communications display and the social media, I think I'm still unclear on making sure and I want to make sure that we are also then clear to the public of like why we may or may not be posting things on social media. So perhaps that could be part of the retreat or coming up. Yeah, let's discuss. I think that's better discussed

198at a retreat. So maybe we can add that to next retreat. Okay. And I think if there are any other items we might want added to our retreat, maybe you can send an email to me and Crystal and we can try to figure it out if something else comes up too. Thank you. Okay. Um if nothing else, we can move on to item 19, which is adjournment. Um can I get a motion to adjurnn? Motion to adjurnn. Second it. All in favor? I. Okay. motion.